SWEETWATER, FL - Authorities with the Sweetwater Police Department (SPD) said that they have arrested man after he allegedly stole more than $1,000 worth of Nike merchandise from the Dolphin Mall.
The individual is facing theft charges, a battery charge after an officer was shoved while he was running away from them, and additional charges after noticing a tattoo on his arm indicates that he is a member of Tren de Aragua, the violent Venezuelan prison gang that is infiltrating the United States.
According to CBS News, the suspect has been identified as Abrahan Dejesus Mavo-Bracho and he is in the country illegally. Alvaro Zabaleta, with SPD said, "The tattoo is known as one of the identifiers to the known Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua." Mavo-Bracho has denied any affiliation with the gang, but police said that federal agents do not believe him.
Zabaleta said, "People don't get these tattoos just because they look nice. Because nobody wants to be affiliated with them and nobody wants to put them where they can be mistakenly identified as being affiliated with them." Police said that Mavo-Bracho entered the country illegally and was caught by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
He was then sent up to Chicago with a ankle monitor and was scheduled to have a hearing in 2025. Instead, he took off the ankle monitor and fled to south Florida. As of this writing, police are unsure as to why he came to the sunshine state. Zabaleta said, "We were able to take what we now consider a dangerous person and a fugitive of course to the federal authorities for cutting his anklet off."
According to NBC Miami, the arrest report states that a man who was at the mall approached an off-duty officer and told him three men wanted to beat him up. When the officer approached the group, Mavo-Bracho pushed the officer and ran away. He tried to get into a car, but another officer tased him and took him into custody.
Back in July the White House decaled Tren de Aragua (TdA) a transnational criminal organization. According to the U.S. State Department, the gang began as a prison gang in Venezuela. Over the past six years, the gang has expanded throughout South America and recently into Central America and the United States.
Police in Illinois, Texas, and New York have also arrested alleged TdA gang members. Detectives with the New York Police Department (NYPD) recently cracked down on more than 40 alleged members trying to recruit children. Joseph Kennedy of NYPD said, "We have no fingerprints on file for them, photographs, prior criminal history on them." Mavo-Bracho will remain in custody due to an immigration hold.
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