Abbott announced a statewide operation targeting Tren de Aragua (TdA), aiming to disrupt the group’s foothold in Texas. The surge in gang activity coincides with a wave of migration from Venezuela — nearly 500,000 individuals — since the Biden administration took office in 2021, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS).Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has declared the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization as part of a broader crackdown on the gang’s activities in the state.
Today in Houston, I designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization.
Texas will aggressively target them to disrupt their criminal activities & deny their foothold in our state.
Texas is the wrong state for them to do business in.
More: https://t.co/VZ4OXL9uYp pic.twitter.com/CyqG1v9dPA
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) September 16, 2024 “The recent entry and expansion of the vicious Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, is a dangerous and deadly problem facing our state and nation,” Abbott said in a joint statement. “Our top focus is the safety and security of all Texans.” Tren de Aragua has reportedly taken over hotels and apartment buildings across the U.S., including in the border city of El Paso, located across the Rio Grande from Mexico. According to ABC7 News, the county attorney in El Paso is seeking to shut down the Gateway Hotel amid allegations that the facility is harboring members of the gang. El Paso police officers have been called to the hotel nearly 700 times over the past two years to investigate criminal activity at the condemned hotel, ABC7 reported.
EPPD was called out nearly 700x over 2 yrs. to investigate criminal activity at the condemned Gateway Hotel downtown. Other allegations include operating without a license and harboring members of a dangerous Venezuelan gang known as the Tren de Aragua. https://t.co/DMVEF6bG37 “Tren de Aragua gangsters are like cockroaches,” DPS Director McCraw said in the statement. “They multiply quickly; small intrusions into communities become infestations if not aggressively pursued,” he added. “These Venezuelan thugs are highly combative, violent, and certainly adaptable. They’re always involved in situations that first start with human smuggling. Then they are involved in the extortion, kidnappings, rape, assaults, and sex trafficking of migrants.” In July, the Biden administration designated the gang a transnational criminal organization, accusing the group of human trafficking, violence against women, money laundering, and drug trafficking. That same month, a memo from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) warned that the gang had authorized its members operating in at least four U.S. cities to shoot police officers.
— Stephanie Valle (@StephanieV_KVIA) September 9, 2024
SCOOP: A DHS memo circulating internally is warning officials that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has given the ‘green light’ to members to shoot US cops.
Cops in Albuquerque, NY, Chicago and Denver are the targets of these threats.
More: https://t.co/ma4rkr7OLW pic.twitter.com/F5A3WZ38CZ
— Jennie Taer 🎗️ (@JennieSTaer) July 30, 2024
