Three illegal migrants with the brutal Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang have been arrested for allegedly executing a man with a gun and kidnapping two children in Texas, authorities said.
Carl Luis Zambrano-Bolivar, 26, Jhonata Nahin Toro Gonzalez, 22, and Ehiker Morales Mendoza, 38, were all arrested in recent weeks, the Department of Homeland Security’s Dallas investigations office said in a Friday release.
The three men were wanted for the murder of Nilzuly Enrique Arneaud-Petit, 33, who was found dead in August with a single gunshot wound to the head in Farmer’s Branch just outside Dallas.
A passing driver notified the police about Petit’s body lying in the street on August 24 shortly before 4 a.m.
Detectives were also notified that two children possibly related to the victim were walking on a nearby service road.
Police caught up with the children and learned that Petit and the two minors had been “forcibly taken by several unknown suspects from an apartment complex” in Dallas around 12:30 a.m., the Farmers Branch Police Department said.
The suspects drove Petit and the two children in a light-colored four-door sedan to the location where Petit was fatally shot in the head, police said. They continued driving with the two children before releasing them unharmed on the service road.
Authorities learned that Petit was an “associate” of the suspects and was allegedly involved in a “complex ATM theft operation targeting several locations nationwide,” the police department said.
The suspects accused him of withholding some of the stolen money, and when he did not provide it, he was kidnapped along with the two children, according to authorities.
All three suspects are “documented members of Tren de Aragua” and are expected to be sent back to Texas to face prosecution for murder and aggravated kidnapping, authorities said.
Two of the men were arrested by immigration authorities in Aurora, Colorado, while the third was apprehended in New Mexico.
A fourth Tren de Aragua gang member, Jhonny Jesus Martinez Serrano, 29, is also wanted in connection with the murder but remains at large.
“Violent criminal organizations and transnational gangs like Tren de Aragua are a plague upon our communities that rely on fear and violence to reign terror on hardworking and law-abiding residents,” said Travis Pickard, the acting Special Agent in Charge at Homeland Security’s Dallas investigations office.
“By coming together as a law enforcement community to successfully locate and arrest these fugitives across state lines, we have sent a resounding message that we are united in our efforts to dismantle these violent criminal networks and put an end to the lawlessness that they spread,” Pickard said.
The announcement of the arrests comes just days before Election Day on Tuesday.
Illegal immigration has been one of the driving issues this election cycle, especially for former President Donald Trump, who has promised to close the border.
