OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
5:40 PM – Friday, December 20, 2024
After tracking an illegal alien’s ICE ankle monitor GPS to an apparent “hideout,” federal investigators apprehended a crew of Tren de Aragua gang members, which had taken over a Bronx apartment, according to police sources who spoke to the press.
When a federal task force consisting of Homeland Security Investigations and the NYPD raided an apartment building on the outskirts of Crotona Park on December 5th, they found seven suspected gang members and put them in handcuffs, including 28-year-old Venezuelan national, Jarwin Valero-Calderon, who was wearing a court-ordered monitoring device.
It is unclear why police sources held back on releasing the story to the press, until now.
“Better late than never,” said a law enforcement source, who noted that he was unsure why Jarwin Valero-Calderon was ever released, despite at least three arrests, a Nassau County conviction, and a federal deportation order.
“This is what actual supervised release looks like?” the source asked. “The thing about ankle monitors is you have to actually monitor them to be effective.”
However, the raid dealt a serious blow to TdA, the violent gang that has taken advantage of Biden and Harris’ loose border policies, establishing a presence in New York, Colorado, and other regions of the U.S. after illegally sneaking into the country with the surge of other “asylum-seeking migrants” since 2022.
According to law enforcement officials, the gang has recruited others within taxpayer-funded migrant shelters, and they take part in theft, sex trafficking, drug and weapon smuggling, among other illicit activities.
“What we’re seeing is this evolution of Tren de Aragua, where they’ve gone into these sanctuary cities,” stated former Denver ICE chief John Fabbricatore. “They’ve started to solidify themselves and then they throw tentacles out to multiple other locations where they think that they can continue to make money.
“I think people are finally starting to realize how bad the situation has gotten,” he continued.
The majority of the gang members apprehended inside the Bronx apartment were reportedly wanted on several warrants after illegally entering the United States from Mexico, according to law enforcement sources.
One of them, 24-year-old Jhonaiker Alexander Gil Cardozo, had crossed the border at El Paso in September 2022, and he had been arrested “at least four times in two states.” According to sources, Cardozo was previously arrested by the NYPD in July on allegations of grand larceny and other stolen property. In June, he was also arrested in two NYC cases for robbery and reckless endangerment. On June 28th, he was arrested yet again for shoplifting in Greenville, South Carolina.
Jesus Manuel Quintero Granado, 30, a “top leader” of the TdA, crossed the border near El Paso in September 2022 with his “Peruvian wife and child before entering Canada.” However, the sources also stated that in September 2023, Canadian authorities rejected the family’s asylum request and sent them back to the United States, where they were released by northern border agents pending an immigration court. With four arrests in New York and New Jersey, Quintero Granado immediately established himself as an undesirable to authorities, the sources noted. He was first caught for shoplifting in Paramus on August 18th, 2023, and was later busted by the NYPD for grand larceny and possession of stolen property in July.
Angel Gabriel Marquez Rodriguez, 19, was also arrested following the Bronx police operation on December 5th. According to the sources, he was released with a court date pending after crossing the border illegally in September 2023. Nevertheless, he still broke the law in Chicago two months later and was arrested and then released. Chicago is a “sanctuary” city. On November 3rd, 2023, Rodriguez was taken into custody in Chicago on suspicion of shoplifting. He was arrested on larceny charges on March 30th and June 8th while still at large in New York City.
Fernandez Franco Greymer De Dios, 21, another migrant gang member who was caught during the operation, was being processed for deportation after being apprehended at the border in May. Nevertheless, according to the sources, he told authorities that he was afraid of deportation and was freed until a court date, only to vanish, leading to a deportation order in absentia on November 20th. It is unclear why officials decided to trust him, releasing him into the public.
Valero-Calderon, the migrant fugitive whose ankle monitor helped the federal agents find the gang, had evaded the law on multiple occasions prior to the Bronx search. In August 2022, Valero-Calderon illegally entered the United States through Eagle Pass, Texas, and he was released with a court date. According to the sources, he showed up at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New York City the next month, but he had a lengthy criminal record of his own. Following a subsequent larceny conviction in Nassau County on April 24th, 2023, records indicate that he was convicted in June 2023 after being arrested twice on larceny charges in New York and New Jersey. Valero-Calderon then failed to appear for a mandatory check-in with immigration authorities and was listed as a fugitive. However, he managed to stay at large despite being arrested in Florida on February 17th, 2024, for fraud, theft, and resisting arrest. On April 25th, he was ordered to be deported, but as of December 5th, he was still at large.
Federal immigration sources recognized all of the illegal immigrants as TdA members.
A spate of heists in Times Square has put the gang and its juvenile branch, “Diablos de la 42,” or Devils of 42nd Street, on the NYPD’s radar in recent months. Despite having alarming rap sheets, the young “terrors”—with some of whom being as young as 11-years-old—have remained on the streets by taking advantage of the state’s weak juvenile detention and criminal justice laws.
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