Photo: ICE
A man deemed to be a "ringleader" of the Venezuelan migrant gang Tren de Aragua was arrested during an ICE raid in New York City on Tuesday (January 28), sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to the New York Post.
Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 25, faces several charges including kidnapping, burglary and menacing, in relation to a caught-on-camera break-in in Aurora, Colorado. Zambrano-Pacheco was caught by Homeland Security Investigators at an apartment in the Bronx early Tuesday morning.
Zambrano-Pacheco and several other suspects were seen on surveillance footage forcing their way into an apartment in Aurora in August amid the gang's growing presence nationwide. Tren de Aragua is reported to have a presence in 17 U.S. states after at least one of its members was arrested in West Fargo, North Dakota, in November, the New York Post reports.
An internal Homeland Security memo warned officials of the gang's growing presence in Washington, D.C., Virginia, Montana and Wyoming after it already had already been present in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. The gang has also reportedly increased its "violent tendencies" as it grows larger in different areas, having previously engaged in "lower-level fraud and theft schemes," which includes sending stolen funds “back to South America as a means of financing additional criminal enterprises," according to the memo.