(The Center Square) – A multi-law enforcement operation resulted in 40 alleged members of the violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) being arrested in Hays County, a rural county located southwest of Austin.
Texas Department of Public Safety announced the arrests after a more than year-long investigation conducted by multiple agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, San Antonio Police Department, and multiple federal, state and local partners.
The arrests were made Wednesday after the FBI learned of a possible gathering of suspected TdA members and associates in Hays County. Early Tuesday morning, the Hays County Sheriff’s Office and DPS, working with the FBI, ICE, Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement Removal Operations, established sufficient cause to obtain a search warrant for a residence in Hays County, DPS said. DPS’ Special Response Team executed the search warrant, resulting in the arrest of more than 40 individuals, including minors, who were taken into custody at or near the residence, DPS said. Officers also seized narcotics.
An investigation is ongoing and charges have yet to be announced.
As the border crisis escalated under the Biden administration, Hays County residents were hit hard by the death of three teenage boys from fentanyl poisoning in less than two months in 2022. At the time, fentanyl poisonings were underreported and teenage deaths sent shockwaves through communities.
In 2023, Hays County resident Brandon Dunn testified before Congress that his high school sophomore son Noah “was murdered by a drug dealer selling counterfeit Percocet pills,” The Center Square reported. The pill contained no Percocet. Instead, it contained 8 milligrams of fentanyl, he said. Two milligrams is considered a lethal dose.
Not soon after, two Hay County teenage boys died from counterfeit Xanax and Percocet pills containing illicit fentanyl, prompting the Hays County Independent School District to launch a campaign to educate parents and students about fake prescription pills and illicit fentanyl. Nurses’ offices, local law enforcement and other agencies in the county stocked up on NARCAN, the lifesaving drug that can quickly reverse an opioid overdose.
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who represents Hays County in House District 21, also worked with Boerne ISD to produce a public service announcement warning parents and students about the dangers of illicit fentanyl.
Dunn and his wife co-founded The Forever 15 Project, a nonprofit to spread awareness about the dangers of fentanyl, provide resources for those at risk, and honor those who were killed from fentanyl poisoning.
Under the Biden administration, fentanyl poured through the southwest border from Mexico, where cartels use precursors from China to manufacture it and traffic it across the border. Under the Biden administration, fentanyl became the leading cause of death among Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in fiscal 2024 alone seized 21,889 pounds of fentanyl, enough to kill more than 4.9 billion people. Texas law enforcement officials in four years seized enough fentanyl to kill the entire populations of the U.S., Canada and Mexico combined, The Center Square reported.
Roy was among the first in Congress calling for the impeachment of former President Joe Biden and former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, arguing they created the border crisis that led to the deaths of countless innocent Americans. He was among nearly all House Republicans who impeached Mayorkas in February 2024, the first sitting cabinet member to be impeached in U.S. history, The Center Square reported. U.S. Senate Democrats ensured no trial was held, giving every cabinet member “a blank slate to ignore the law,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, argued, The Center Square reported.
“The Biden Administration’s open-border policies, led by impeached former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, brought a historic number of criminal aliens and dangerous actors into our communities. Texans – including those in TX21 – have suffered as a direct result, from dozens of fentanyl related deaths to human trafficking, and now an enormous [TdA] gang operation … operating right in the heart of suburban Austin in Hays County, Texas, where I call home,” Roy said when praising the TdA arrests.
“While South American gangs engage in murder, extortion, human trafficking, and terrorism – activist judges and radical progressive Democrats continue to impede the President and Republican leaders from removing these criminals from the United States,” he said, arguing, “there should be unanimity of purpose among all our nation’s leaders to bolster enforcement efforts against all illegal aliens, criminal gangs, and cartels until every last member is incarcerated and deported.”
One of President Donald Trump’s first acts in office was to designate TdA and Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).
Under the Biden administration, as crime expanded in at least 22 states by confirmed TdA members, Texas law enforcement expanded targeted operations to apprehend them. Gov. Greg Abbott last year designated TdA and cartel members as FTOs and also launched a statewide initiative to target them, offering rewards of up to $5,000 for information leading to their identification and arrest, The Center Square reported.
In addition to the arrests in Hays County, violent TdA members are being arrested statewide by local and federal authorities, The Center Square reported.
This article was originally published at www.thecentersquare.com
