SAN ANTONIO – The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that its Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested two people in connection with a Venezuelan transnational gang.
HSI agents said the suspects, who are Venezuelan nationals, were taken into custody on Sept. 19 in San Antonio as a part of an enforcement operation targeting Tren de Aragua, a gang that traces its origins to Venezuela.
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The department has not released the identities of either person.
Agents said they received information that the individuals were allegedly connected to the gang’s illegal transport of firearms operation. The San Antonio Police Department and Texas Department of Public Safety assisted Homeland Security in those arrests.
After their arrests, HSI officials said the individuals were later transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement based on potential immigration violations.
According to the Texas Tribune, the Tren de Aragua gang began in a prison inside the Venezuelan state of Aragua. The gang has since expanded its reach into Central America and the United States.
Three days before HSI’s arrests in San Antonio, on Sept. 16, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a proclamation that designated the Tren de Aragua gang as a foreign terrorist organization.
Abbott also directed the DPS to focus resources toward this goal.
“We will bring the full weight of the government against the TDA by declaring TDA a foreign terrorist organization,” Abbott said before signing the proclamation at a news conference in Houston. “Texas will use the courts to halt their operations, use civil asset forfeiture to take their property, use enhanced criminal penalties to keep them in jail, behind bars for longer periods of time.”
Homeland Security Investigations officials said their investigation remains ongoing.
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