El Paso County Attorney: Venezuelan Gang Runs Hotel

The dangerous Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) has taken over yet another property, this one in El Paso, Texas.

In a nuisance complaint filed against the Gateway Hotel, El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez alleges that the hotel has been a center of uncontrolled criminal activity for years. Cops have responded to crimes at the property some 700 times in two years, and say the gang is involved.

The complaint seeks a restraining order against the property’s owner, alleging that he has ignored the criminal activity.

The filing is more proof that the 5,000-member Tren de Aragua is operating freely nationwide. The gang is active in Colorado and New York as well as Texas, its presence largely the result of President Joe Biden’s illegal border policies.

Long List of Crimes

The complaint is loaded with a list of the hotel’s civil and criminal offenses. It alleges that for six years, the hotel has not had a valid occupancy certificate. And, “for the last two years, there have been six hundred and ninety-three (693) calls for service to the hotel.”

The continuing need for police shows “that the Gateway has habitual criminal activity that violates” Texas law. That activity also “contributes to the overall blight this business brings to downtown El Paso,” the complaint continues:

A video showing the deplorable state of the inside of the building and the type of activity allowed inside of the business comes from an aggravated assault case. The video shows dozens of people “partying” on the 3rd floor of the hotel, drinking, smoking and dancing provocatively while children are present. The video also shows at least one gun being shot, another used to threaten, men holding knives and another man with a hatchet assaulting people and causing damage to the hotel in front of a security guard. 

Still photos also depict the crimes.

Among the code violations from August 2022 through August 2024 were these:

• 11 drug crimes;
• 10 aggravated assaults;
• Five criminal trespasses;
• 20 disorderly conducts;
• 13 fights;
• Two terroristic threats;
• Two public intoxications;
• One indecency with a child;
• Six criminal mischiefs; and,
• One arson.

Other crimes include seven thefts, six burglaries, and one sex offender failing to register.

“Despite direct knowledge of the criminal activity occurring on the property, defendants have not made a reasonable attempt to abate the activity,” the complaint alleges:

Defendants refused or failed to cooperate with law enforcement by not providing video surveillance when asked on several occasions, and employees or the owner were often reluctant to cooperate when they did.

The complaint mentions the gang five times, and cites a police officer who says that

“continuous incidents of criminal activity” [have] increased “with the introduction of the Tren De Aragua organization into the hotel.”

Additionally, the building “has failed at least three” fire inspections.

Trouble in Colorado

Meanwhile, having previously denied that the gang had taken over apartments in Aurora, Colorado, the mayor on Monday offered police protection to the complexes, the Denver Gazette reported today.

The owner of those properties is CBZ management.

Last week, the Gazette reported that the city is forcing the company to sell or lease its Aspen Grove complex:

Last month, officials shuttered Aspen Grove — evicting roughly 300 people — citing a string of health and safety issues that included rodent infestations, sewage backups and trash pileups, water leaks and a lack of electricity.

But that wasn’t the only problem. The gang was another — and a big one at that:

Through a Florida PR firm, the company blamed the deteriorating conditions at Aspen Grove on gang activity — an allegation that city officials initially denied and then later walked back.

As early as June, an attorney representing the landlords sent a flurry of letters, obtained and authenticated by The Denver Gazette, to police, state and local officials seeking help with the Venezuelan gang, which the lawyer said had “forcibly taken control” of the property.

That report comports with video that showed an attempted break-in at another CBZ property, The Edge at Lowry. Another viral video depicts gang members with weapons at the complex.

The gang also controls the CBZ Whispering Pines complex, the Daily Mail reported.

“Venezuelan gangsters have been running the building since late 2023,” the newspaper reported, citing a letter from the leftist Perkins Coie law firm. (Perkins Coie was involved in perpetrating the Russia Collusion Hoax in 2016.)

As The New American reported last week, citing Fox News, the four Venezuelan gang members arrested for attempted murder in Aurora are Biden “migrants” caught and released at the border, pursuant to Biden’s illegal immigration policies.

Ibarra Brother, New York City

But the reach of the gang goes well beyond Texas and Colorado, as far as New York City. Gang members there are operating an “organized retail theft” ring, says John Miller, former chief of intelligence for the city police. The gang was also involved in the beating of two city cops.

Moreover, a reputed gang member, Diego Ibarra, is the brother of Jose Ibarra, who is charged with the brutal murder of nursing student Laken Riley.

Diego, Jose and a third brother, Argenis, were also caught and released at the border. Border agents put Diego in the Biden administration’s laughable “Alternatives to Detention” program and cut him loose with an ankle monitor. He cut it off and discarded it in Colorado.

A federal detention motion says Diego’s tattoos link him to the gang:

Ibarra has a five-pointed crown tattoo on the left side of his neck, and five-pointed stars on the right side of his neck. Ibarra also has a teardrop tattoo under his right eye — [though] teardrop tattoos are often associated with gangs and gang culture and are not exclusive to TdA, or any single gang.

H/T: Newsweek, El Paso Times