Ten illegal alien Tren de Aragua gang members indicted for gun-running scheme in New York

NEW YORK, NY - The recent mass deportation efforts by federal agents has been supplemented by a years-long investigation which last week took down members of a violent Venezuelan gang.

Fox News Digital reports that ten members and associates of the violent Tren de Aragua (TdA) criminal gang have been indicted in connection with a huge arms and drug-running operation that spanned at least six states. Prosecutors claim the group planned on expanding to an international level involving Colombia. 

On Wednesday, NYPD officials said one of the accused gangbangers broke an officer’s arm after getting into a tussle during his arrest. 

All told, authorities seized 34 illegal guns, including AR-15 assault rifles (which are per se illegal to possess in New York) and a Glock 9mm with a “Glock switch” that converted the weapon to an automatic, Queens District Attorney Melissa Katz said. 

Katz said the gang members were selling deadly drugs, including pink cocaine, described as a “designer” street drug that has a mix of ketamine, MDMA, and ecstasy. 

Police said all ten were illegal aliens and included eight men and two women who came to the country illegally from Venezuela and crossed at the southern border. 

This particular group ran under the auspices of two Venezuelan nationals who entered the country illegally and came to New York City two years ago. They established a gun-running crew that also included other foreign nationals. 

The ringleader of the gang, Enyerbert Blanco, 24, has been in custody in Florida since October after he was charged in connection with a human trafficking case involving a 15-year-old girl,” Katz said. 

‘We allege that as members and associates, they trafficked weapons and made money in furtherance of TdA’s agenda and as they seek to establish themselves in New York City, we are individually dismantling them,” Katz continued. 

The operation, which Katz dubbed “Operation Train Derail,” started over a year ago and was a joint effort between the DA’s office and the NYPD. Five of the ten were charged with two counts of criminal sale of a firearm and face sentences of up to 25 years if they are convicted. 

The remainder were arrested on a variety of firearms possession charges and other crimes. All face a maximum of 15 years in prison. All ten, meanwhile, are charged with conspiracy to possess and sell illegal firearms in New York City. 

While four are in custody in New York City, four are locked up in other states: two in Florida and two in Texas. The remainder are currently on the lam. Katz said the illicit operation spanned three other states besides New York–Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. 

Katz refused to acknowledge if the gangbangers would be sent packing out of the country, noting she was treating the operation as a gun-running case. 

She also noted that the suspects didn’t even try to hide what they were doing. 

“In one instance, the defendant transported an AR-15 wrapped in a black garbage bag for sale in Bronx County. This buy occurred at 3:45 p.m. in front of a residential building.” 

Five other buys took place inside a Target car park in College Point in Queens, and the purchase took place between Oct. 30 through Dec. 10. 

Katz noted the going rate for an assault weapon is $2,500 to $2,800, while loaded, operable handguns average between $1,200 and $1,800. 

“This group was very entrepreneurial. They really made sure that this business was run like a clock,” Katz said. “They stole firearms that were proceeds of burglaries and car break-ins from other states. They relied on the use of rental vehicles to come up the iron pipeline and sell them to people in the city of New York. They were aware that they could make money in the city of New York, and they even discussed potentially smuggling them to Colombia due to the success of this investigation.” 

Meanwhile, the officer who was injured in the takedown is scheduled for surgery this week and the suspect will be charged with separate charges,” said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. 

“TdA is a dangerous transnational gang that has specialized in murder, trafficking, and mayhem,” Tisch said. “The NYPD will always work with our federal and our local partners to take down international gangs like TdA, who would wreak havoc in this city.” 

Those gang members arrested included Wrallan Meza, 27; Leoner Aguilera, 21; Bryant Aguilar, 21; Rosemary Sanchez, 24; Enyerling Zambrano, 29; Alejandro Rondon, 19; and Oscar Sosa, 31. 

The Queens raid took place a day after ICE raids in the Bronx resulted in the arrest of TdA gang member Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 26, who was pinched by the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Homeland Security investigators. 

He is wanted in Aurora, Colorado for first-degree burglary and menacing with a firearm from an Aug. 18, 2024, incident where he and five other armed men broke into an apartment at gunpoint, an incident that some Democrats and media outlets claimed never occurred.  

Newly-appointed Director of Homeland Security Kristi Noem told Fox News that Zambrano-Pacheco is also wanted in connection with a gun exchange and was also trying to purchase grenades. He has also been charged with kidnapping, extortion, and menacing, police say. 
 

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Carlton

Make them do their time at Girmo , then deport them

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