Texas law enforcement raided a vacant San Antonio apartment complex that had fallen under the “control” of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang, which was using the building as a base for crime, officials said.
A multi-agency task force cleared more than 300 vacant units at the Palatia Apartments on the North Side of the city on Saturday morning, San Antonio Police Chief Chief McManus told reporters at a press conference.
SAPD had received several complaints from the apartment complex regarding narcotics, human trafficking and threats to apartment personnel, according to police.
“We had information that members of the transnational gang Tren de Agua were in control of the area and committing various crimes,” McManus said.
Twenty people were arrested, four who are confirmed Tren de Agua members — including one person who is an “enforcer,” he said.
Nineteen of those detained were charged. Several of those arrested had confirmed warrants, officials said.
The apartments were searched by a joint team of officers from SAPD, Texas Department of Public Safety, Federal Bureau of Investigation and US Customs and Border Protection, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and Homeland Security Investigations.
The arrests come after a weeks-long investigation as part of SAPD’s “Operation Aurora” initiative, which is part of a broader effort to disrupt Tren de Aragua’s influence in Texas.
Authorities believe Tren de Aragua in San Antonio is involved in prostitution, selling of cocaine, and other violent crimes, according to News4SA.
McManus said Saturday that the gang has been operating in the area for “several months”
He said they have identifying tattoos and are known to wear red.
“We assure the community and members of the public that we are committed to their safety and on top of this TDA issue that seems to have gone very public lately,” McManus said.
Saturday’s bust was law enforcement’s first takedown of a known gang location, but the chief said “We have other places we are going to hit.”
“We are onto you,” he told the gang members. “We are coming for you and we know where you are.”
More than 100 suspected members of Tren de Aragua (TdA) were a part of the group that violently stormed the border at El Paso, Texas in March.
Since then, gang has created footholds across the country, allegedly taking over apartments in Colorado, seizing hotels near the Texas border in El Paso and shooting cops in New York.
Tren de Agua is known nationally for luring women into sex trafficking, forcing them to sell their bodies in American cities to pay off exorbitant smuggling fees, according to a leaked law enforcement memo obtained by The Post last month.
In the Big Apple, Tren de Aragua is trying to recruit foot soldiers to force women into sex trafficking to fund gang activity.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has declared the prison gang a foreign terrorist organization.
