U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations agents, working with other law enforcement officials, continue to apprehend violent illegal border crossers, including members of Mexican cartels.
Earlier this month, they arrested a member of the Cartel del Golfo, a 36-year-old Mexican citizen who was in the U.S. illegally. The cartel member has a criminal record, including a felony conviction for possession of marijuana and illegal entry.
HSI also identified him as the leader of a sicario cell. Sicarios are hitmen, often involved in kidnapping, and wanted by U.S. and Mexican authorities.
The Gulf Cartel has traditionally controlled the trafficking of people and drugs in the region of Mexico south of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. In the last few years, Gulf, Zeta and CJNG cartel members have increasingly engaged in violence in Tamaulipas, battling for control over a multibillion-dollar trafficking business, The Center Square reported.
ICE’s HSI agents, working with law enforcement partners, also arrested a Tren de Aragua gang member, a 27-year-old Venezuelan citizen in the U.S. illegally. He was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and is the suspected shooter in an attempted murder investigation in San Antonio. He remains in state custody.
The operation is one of many targeting TdA in San Antonio.
Last fall, San Antonio Police Chief Bill McManus announced a multi-agency operation targeting TdA members who allegedly took over apartments in the northern part of the city, The Center Square reported. McManus also warned TdA members, “We are on to you and we’re coming for you. We know where you are and we’re coming for you.”
TdA gang members are known for brutal violence, murder, kidnapping, extortion, bribery and human and drug trafficking and are linked to more than 100 law enforcement investigations nationwide.
Both President Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott have designated them as a foreign terrorist organization. Texas also launched a multi-agency operation to target them statewide and is offering up to $5,000 in rewards for information that leads to TDA arrests.
In another multi-agency operation led by ICE HSI, multiple violent illegal foreign nationals were arrested. They include a 35-old Mexican male convicted of drug trafficking and a 53-year-old Mexican male convicted of aggravated assault causing bodily injury and possession of a controlled substance. Both were previously deported and illegally reentered the country; both remain in federal custody.
Also arrested were Honduran men in the country illegally, including a confirmed MS-13 gang member convicted of felony fraud and felony weapons charges and a Honduran with a DWI conviction and forgery charges. One was previously deported and illegally reentered the country. Both remain in federal custody pending removal to Honduras.
“HSI San Antonio remains steadfast in its mission to apprehend individuals who pose a significant threat to public safety,” HSI San Antonio Special Agent in Charge Craig Larrabee said. “The arrest of these individuals who have flagrantly violated immigration laws and are actively involved in criminal enterprise, is a vital step in strengthening and protecting our communities and the country’s borders.”
In Houston, Harris County Sheriff deputies arrested a three-time previously deported Mexican national wanted in Harris County for aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury. He was booked into the Harris County Jail.
According to ICE records, he was previously removed to Mexico in September 2001, July 2008, and April 2015. After he illegally reentered the U.S., he continued to commit crimes and was convicted of voluntarily manslaughter, aggravated assault with a weapon, possession of marijuana, and illegal re-entry.
After his latest arrest and booking into the county jail, on Feb. 7, ICE lodged an immigration detainer request to be notified if he were to be released into the community. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez has openly opposed working with ICE; roughly 10% of county jail inmates have ICE detainer requests, The Center Square reported.
“Immigration detainers are one of the most indispensable resources in the ICE officer’s toolbox,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford said. “They enable our officers to take direct custody of criminal aliens in the safe confines of the jail, which enhances the safety of everyone involved, and helps to eliminate unnecessary spending that would otherwise be required to go out and search for them in the community.”
“Violent criminal aliens like this individual who violate our nation’s system of laws with impunity are a direct threat to the safety of our communities,” he added. “That danger is not lost on our officers who live and raise families in the Houston area. As a result, they are out in the field every day putting their lives on the line to track down dangerous criminal aliens and restore law and order in our communities.”
ICE is encouraging the general public to report suspicious criminal activity to its Tip Line 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE.
