Still photos from security footage at the Gateway Hotel in El Paso, Texas, on June 16, 2024. Courtesy of El Paso County Attorney
Posted on 09/12/2024 1:01:25 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Texas authorities say they are shutting down a crime-ridden hotel housing Tren de Aragua gang members and investigating the gang’s criminal involvement in other cities.
Still photos from security footage at the Gateway Hotel in El Paso, Texas, on June 16, 2024. Courtesy of El Paso County Attorney
El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez filed a lawsuit on Aug. 27 to close the Gateway Hotel on Stanton St. in downtown El Paso, Texas, for multiple code violations, noting 693 police and service calls to the location over the past two years.
The lawsuit names as defendants the Gateway Hotel; Gigante Enterprises LLC, which owns the business; and hotel owner Howard Yun.
Tren de Aragua gang members have occupied the Gateway Hotel since at least June, according to court documents obtained by The Epoch Times.
Elhiu Dominguez, special projects coordinator with El Paso County, told The Epoch Times that a judge granted an order to close the hotel by Sept. 12.
The temporary injunction signed by District Judge Maria Salas-Mendoza will shut down the hotel pending a Dec. 9 hearing on a permanent injunction. Residents will have until 10 a.m. on Sept. 12 to vacate the hotel.
Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang with an estimated 5,000 members, is feared in Latin America and has been connected to murder, drugs, and human trafficking.
Their members are believed to be taking advantage of the border crisis chaos, illegally slipping across the U.S. southern border.
“Watch out for this gang. It is the most powerful in Venezuela, known for murder, drug trafficking, sex crimes, extortion, & other violent acts,” Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in April as a warning about the gang.
President Joe Biden designated Tren de Aragua as a transnational criminal organization in July at the urging of Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
“Over the last year, the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has managed to move their operations north by taking advantage of our porous southern border,” Salazar said.
“My constituents in Miami, many of them Venezuelans themselves, should not have to endure living amongst the same kinds of criminals that forced them to leave their home country.”
In El Paso, “deplorable” conditions exist inside the once-condemned hotel, which has been the location of at least 10 aggravated assaults, 13 instances of assaultive conduct/fights, 11 drug delivery or possession charges, 20 disorderly conduct incidents, and at least one indecency with a child call, according to court documents.
Security videos at the Gateway Hotel show an aggravated assault and “men holding knives and another man with a hatchet assaulting people and causing damage to the hotel in front of a security guard,” court documents state.
In an affidavit included in the court documents, El Paso Police Officer Samuel Medina said he suspects prostitution is taking place at the hotel and said the “continuous incidents of criminal activity” have increased “with the introduction of the Tren de Aragua organization into the hotel.”
During a “hotel check” in July, a police officer noted that there were “people behind the front desk without hotel insignia or uniform looking at paperwork,” and an officer identified Tren de Aragua members at the hotel, according to court documents.
A still photo taken from a security camera at the Gateway Hotel in El Paso on June 15, 2024. The footage was included in court documents. Courtesy of the El Paso County Attorney
In August, police were called to the hotel with reports of loud noise and drinking. They reported that one person living on the third floor had a tattoo associated with the Venezuelan gang.
The hotel received a conditional certificate of occupancy for the first floor in 2018, but the court documents state that a new certificate was never issued.
The Epoch Times was unable to reach Yun for comment.
El Paso isn’t the only Texas city dealing with the Venezuelan gang.
Dallas Police spokeswoman Jennifer Pryor told The Epoch Times in a Sept. 10 email that gang activity in north Dallas has been linked to Tren de Aragua.
“Our department is collaborating with other agencies to address possible crimes linked to this and other gangs in our city. We are dedicated to preventing criminal activity in our community and ensuring the safety of our residents,” she wrote.
The Venezuelan gang captured the attention of the nation in a viral video showing gun-toting gangsters seemingly operating with impunity at an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado.
Law firm Perkins Coie, which represents the lender for Whispering Pines, a 54-unit apartment complex at 1357 Helena Street in Aurora, investigated the situation.
Perkins Coie’s 10-page letter to city officials documented how Tren de Aragua took over the Whispering Pines apartments with threats of murder, beatings, and intimidation.
Evidence indicates that the Venezuelan gang members in Aurora also engaged in human trafficking, according to Perkins Coie attorney T. Markus Funk.
Extortion, unlawful firearms possession, and sexual abuse of minors allegedly occurred at the apartment complex, “targeting vulnerable Venezuelan and other immigrant populations,” the letter states.
In one case, according to Funk, a consultant for the apartment complex’s management company was so severely beaten that he had to go to the hospital. The incident was captured on videotape.
The city of Aurora has cited “isolated situations” in a statement. The Aurora Police Department didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for a tour of the affected buildings.
In a statement on Facebook on Sept. 11, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Public Safety Chair Danielle Jurinsky detailed the city’s efforts to combat the presence of the Venezuelan gang in their city.
Well before the issue came to national attention, they said, the Aurora police “had been arresting people for various criminal activities who had suspected, but not necessarily confirmed” connections to the gang.
Tren de Aragua’s presence in Aurora “is limited to specific properties, all of which the city has been addressing in various ways for months,” according to the statement.
Epoch Times Reporter Allan Stein contributed to this report.
Shoot them dead.
Rename it the “Harris Hilton”
I’ve been pondering how to move these animals out of CONUS, that is by what type of conveyance and to where.
Does France still lave he deed to Devil’s Island? Let’s buy it and ship them in cargo ships and damp them with seeds and hoes.
No. Not that kind of hoe.
Cities should start suing those groups who were paid to bring them here.
The real question is, why are they still breathing?
They cross the border illegally, they’re armed, illegally, they’re threatening American citizens, illegally… And they are an armed threat.
Why are they still breathing?
Should have done that after 3 police calls not after 693.
As we say in Texas, Shoot and Shovel
A tractor with a bucket is much more efficient though
Deep so the corpse sniffing dogs don’t find the remains
Shemya Island in the Aleutian Island chain would be a great spot.
The former USAF Early Warning Radar base would be a great spot for refugees, criminals, perverts and other ne’er do wells.
The weather on Shemya is very drastic, though the temperatures only vary between single digits to the mid fifties, is most likely to be cloudy with a mist and the wind ranges from 30 to 40 miles per hour
Kick them out of the hotel. Yes, that will certainly fix the problem.
“They cross the border illegally, they’re armed, illegally, they’re threatening American citizens, illegally… And they are an armed threat.”
Then you may shoot them. If I felt threatened in such a manner I would not wait for permission.
You’re not alone
I’ve been pondering how to move these animals out of CONUS, that is by what type of conveyance and to where.
—
Best conveyance would be a hearse to the funeral home crematory.
After these guests vacate the hotel premises where will they relocate to next?
Paging Governor Greg Abbott...
far more hard hitting and less nut job sounding than talking about cats, dogs and ducks being eaten Mr. Trump. you missed a golden opportunity to bring the illegal Biden Harris immigration failure to the forefront.
Law firm hired to investigate gang activity in Aurora, CO reveals unsettling details
At the behest of the lender, the international law firm, “Perkins Coie” investigated the alleged criminal activities of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang at Whispering Pines apartments, a 54-unit complex in Aurora, Colorado.
The Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang’s operation included
<><>first establishing a ‘lower-level’ presence last year,
<><>which they then escalated into violence and intimidation,
<><>the apparent goal was to turn the apt complex into a steady source of income for the gang.
Perkins Coie, the law firm hired by the lender to look into the Venzuelan violence wrote on Aug. 9:
<><>the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members issued death threats
<><>Tren de Aragua menaced the property manager so badly, he later fled;
<><>Tren de Aragua told the property’s employees that they were now “working for” TdA.
Here’s more, regarding the gang’s activities:
<><>The gang members engaged in flagrant crimes
<><>trespass violations, assaults and battery,
<><>human trafficking and sexual abuse of minors,
<><>unlawful firearms possession, extortion, and other criminal activities,
<><>the gang targeted other immigrant populations.
<><>The gang’s calculated MO was to unlawfully moved gang members into vacant units.
<><>the Venezuelans forced out rent-paying residents to create more open units for themselves
<><>they used the apartments for illegal activities such as prostitution.
<><>the gang used threats of violence to extort the property manager
<><>the gang demanded some 50% of all rental income.
Now, when the first video of the heavily armed Venezuelans breaking into apts went viral, the state’s governor, Jared Polis stupidly attempted to gaslight Americans, arguing that what they were seeing was all just a figment of an overactive “imagination.”
Body bags would be the most efficient means.
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