A former Drug Enforcement Administration special agent says the activities of the deadly Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) in Texas may be “just the beginning.”
“TdA is a criminal enterprise, and it grows and metastasizes,” said former DEA Special Agent Michael Brown. said NBCDFW this week. “So right now in some communities in Texas, they may have one or two members. Six months from now, they may have 600 members.”
Brown currently serves as Global Director of the Counternarcotics Division at Rigaku Analytical Devices.
“America does not need new violent crime organizations from the Midwest and South America operating in our cities,” the former DEA special agent added.
TdA Gang Activity in Texas (Texas Department of Public Safety)
The Texas Senate Border Security Committee held a hearing on Thursday, during which Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steve McCraw told senators, “El Paso is the most dangerous place right now for the reasons we've talked about.”
Earlier this week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a proclamation declaring Venezuela's TdA gang a foreign terrorist organization, Breitbart Texas reported. The move, the governor said, will give Texas law enforcement additional tools and resources to target the gang and “disrupt their criminal activity and cut off their foothold in our state.”
In fiscal year 2020, President Donald Trump's final full year in office, Border Patrol agents apprehended just 465 Venezuelan migrants crossing from Mexico into five Texas districts. In the first year of the Biden-Harris administration, crossings increased dramatically, with nearly 68,000 Venezuelan migrants apprehended.
Venezuelan migrants entering the Texas border (Texas Department of Public Safety)
According to a report from Texas DPS officials, from fiscal years 21 to 24, Border Patrol agents apprehended approximately 499,000 Venezuelan migrants who entered the United States illegally in five Border Patrol jurisdictions in Texas.
“Our goal is to protect Texas from the growing threat of gangs,” Governor Abbott concluded in his Monday address. “We will not allow gangs to use Texas as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens.”
“They are being targeted and we are going after them,” the governor said. “Texas is the wrong state for them to do business.”
Bob Price Price is deputy editor and senior news contributor for Breitbart Texas Border Team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a reporter for Fox 26 Houston. What is your argument? Sunday Morning He also serves as chairman of the talk show. Blue Wonder Cancer Care Products.
