A dangerous Venezuelan gang has taken over at least four apartment complexes in San Antonio, Texas, as it expands its reach in yet another America city, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Dubbed the ‘epitome of evil’, Tren de Aragua (TdA) is known to run drug smuggling, child prostitution and human trafficking rings in South America, with its members crossing over into the US in recent years amid a wave of Venezuelan migrants.
The tattooed mobsters have since unleashed a wave of crime across the country from Miami and Texas to Denver and New York.
The gang’s activities in the American cities are back in the spotlight after ABC News’ Martha Raddatz claimed the instances of gang members’ presence in apartments was limited to a ‘handful’ of complexes in Aurora, Colorado.
Just last week a small army of police officers raided an apartment complex in San Antonio and arrested 19 individuals – including four gang members.
Law enforcement sources confirmed TdA had been operating at the Palatia Apartments for five to six months – squatting in empty units they either rented out to other migrants, used as a base to deal cocaine or, most horrifically, as prostitution dens to pimp out women and children.
But now DailyMail.com can reveal that this apartment invasion is just the tip of the iceberg in the major southern Texas city, with at least three other rental properties also occupied by the criminal organization.
DailyMail.com is not naming the three other apartment complexes to avoid jeopardizing ongoing police investigations.
However, the locations were confirmed by law enforcement sources, and we spent days visiting the sites where we spoke to terrified residents.
The rise of Tren de Aragua in America
In a pre-dawn operation, hundreds of law enforcement officers closed in on the sprawling Palatia Apartments in the early hours of October 5 after spending weeks investigating reports that Tren de Aragua had control of the area.
Neighbors recounted how they awoke to the sound of helicopters, drones, and doors being kicked in at around 5 a.m.
‘Every department was here. They were wearing helmets and body armor,’ said one female resident who asked to remain anonymous.
‘My husband came outside in his boxers and had a rifle held to him. They said, “Who are you?” He said, “I live here.” They asked, “Where are you from?” He said Pennsylvania and that was the end of that.’
After searching over 300 units, cops arrested 19 individuals – four of which have been confirmed as gang members.
‘One TdA member is a confirmed “enforcer” for that gang,’ and 15 were in the country illegally,’ the city’s top cop William McManus said.
Mobsters, who brazenly showed off gang tattoos, or wore red clothing, were squatting in empty units where they sold drugs or humans, he added.
‘They had women and children and were prostituting the women and the children,’ said one resident.
‘There was a lot of them and watching all the women and children being put into a paddy wagon, I was like, “Aah!”‘
TdA had also threatened apartment property staffers who discovered their criminal schemes.
The gang’s San Antonio activity almost exactly mirrored what was happening in Aurora, Colorado– where a video of armed gang members storming an apartment made national headlines in August.
The gang took over at least three apartment complexes in the Denver suburb – though lawyers for the properties alleged there were many more rentals in the gang’s grip.
A bombshell report by a law firm that represents one of the apartment management companies found the gang engaged in assaults of apartments staff, threats of murder, extortion and child prostitution.
‘Prostitution is a big money-maker, and the thing with prostitution is that it brings guys in that they can then sell dope to,’ former Colorado ICE director John Fabbricatore told DailyMail.com in September.
‘These guys come in, they meet these Johns and shake them down. See if they want to buy drugs. They’ve started with moving these girls through, and if you go in these apartments, you’ll see these young girls. It’s bad.’
TdA is known to hide among its own law-abiding, asylum-seeking countrymen – not just to blend in, but to also exploit their own people.
The mob transformed from a Venezuelan prison gang to an international criminal ring by smuggling desperate citizens out of the country as they fled communist dictator Nicolás Maduro – profiting from a legitimate humanitarian crisis.
Since 2014, nearly eight million Venezuelans have left their homeland, according to the United Nations. Many went to neighboring South American countries where TdA followed. Now the same thing is happening in the US.
As DailyMail.com exclusively reported, TdA moved its new headquarters to the US-Mexico border in Juarez, Mexico, where it is kidnapping asylum-seeking migrants who are attempting to enter America.
In South Texas, TdA set up shop in an area of just north of San Antonio’s Migrant Resource Center, a shelter run by Catholic Charities that has welcomed over 120,000 migrants since the organization starting tracking numbers in 2023.