Tren de Aragua gang members armed with weapons attacked crossings along the Texas-Mexico border, according to an internal memo obtained by the New York Post.
Earlier in December, 20 members of the notorious Venezuelan prison gang attempted to force their way into the country at a border checkpoint near El Paso, Texas, while armed with blades, broken liquor bottles and tire irons, according to a leaked Texas Department of Public Safety memo obtained by the Post. Another attempt to bust into the U.S. is expected on New Year’s Day.
Tren de Aragua has grown more determined to plant members into the country before President-elect Donald Trump assumes office and embarks on an ambitious crackdown of the U.S.-Mexico border and deport criminal illegal migrants en masse, according to Victor Avila, a retired agent for Homeland Security Investigations.
“You’re seeing that violence at the border because they know that it’s going to change in 27 days,” Avila said to the Post. “It’s going to change. It’s going to be different, and they’re going to be sought after.”
A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The reported attack at the El Paso, Texas, border crossing marks the latest iteration of violence caused by Tren de Aragua, a gruesome migrant gang that originated in a Venezuelan prison in 2013 and has since grown into a robust international crime syndicate. The gang is now believed to be operating in several states and major cities across the country.
The gang is suspected of having completely taken over several apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado, over the past year, despite repeated warnings by the apartment’s owners that their criminal activity was wreaking havoc in the area. Local police suspect that the gang was behind a brutal home invasion in December that involved the abduction and torture of a couple while being held captive in one of the infamous apartment buildings.
The San Antonio Police Department also confirmed that the Tren de Aragua gang members had taken over vacant apartments in the city in October. Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott designated the group as a terrorist organization in September.
“Tren de Aragua gangsters are like cockroaches,” Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said during the terrorist designation announcement. “They multiply quickly; small intrusions into communities become infestations if not aggressively pursued.”
The Department of Homeland Security reportedly identified more than 600 individuals living in the U.S. that have potential ties to the Venezuelan gang.
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