Texas City Shuts Down Hotel Occupied By Venezuelan Gang After 693 Police Calls
Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Texas authorities say they are shutting down a crime-ridden hotel housing Tren de Aragua gang members and investigating the gang’s criminal involvement in other cities.
El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez filed a lawsuit on Aug. 27 to close the Gateway Hotel on Stanton St. in downtown El Paso, Texas, for multiple code violations, noting 693 police and service calls to the location over the past two years.
The lawsuit names as defendants the Gateway Hotel; Gigante Enterprises LLC, which owns the business; and hotel owner Howard Yun.
Tren de Aragua gang members have occupied the Gateway Hotel since at least June, according to court documents obtained by The Epoch Times.
Elhiu Dominguez, special projects coordinator with El Paso County, told The Epoch Times that a judge granted an order to close the hotel by Sept. 12.
The temporary injunction signed by District Judge Maria Salas-Mendoza will shut down the hotel pending a Dec. 9 hearing on a permanent injunction. Residents will have until 10 a.m. on Sept. 12 to vacate the hotel.
Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang with an estimated 5,000 members, is feared in Latin America and has been connected to murder, drugs, and human trafficking.
Their members are believed to be taking advantage of the border crisis chaos, illegally slipping across the U.S. southern border.
“Watch out for this gang. It is the most powerful in Venezuela, known for murder, drug trafficking, sex crimes, extortion, & other violent acts,” Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in April as a warning about the gang.
President Joe Biden designated Tren de Aragua as a transnational criminal organization in July at the urging of Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
“Over the last year, the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has managed to move their operations north by taking advantage of our porous southern border,” Salazar said.
“My constituents in Miami, many of them Venezuelans themselves, should not have to endure living amongst the same kinds of criminals that forced them to leave their home country.”
In El Paso, “deplorable” conditions exist inside the once-condemned hotel, which has been the location of at least 10 aggravated assaults, 13 instances of assaultive conduct/fights, 11 drug delivery or possession charges, 20 disorderly conduct incidents, and at least one indecency with a child call, according to court documents.
Security videos at the Gateway Hotel show an aggravated assault and “men holding knives and another man with a hatchet assaulting people and causing damage to the hotel in front of a security guard,” court documents state.
In an affidavit included in the court documents, El Paso Police Officer Samuel Medina said he suspects prostitution is taking place at the hotel and said the “continuous incidents of criminal activity” have increased “with the introduction of the Tren de Aragua organization into the hotel.”
During a “hotel check” in July, a police officer noted that there were “people behind the front desk without hotel insignia or uniform looking at paperwork,” and an officer identified Tren de Aragua members at the hotel, according to court documents.
In August, police were called to the hotel with reports of loud noise and drinking. They reported that one person living on the third floor had a tattoo associated with the Venezuelan gang.
The hotel received a conditional certificate of occupancy for the first floor in 2018, but the court documents state that a new certificate was never issued.
The Epoch Times was unable to reach Yun for comment.
El Paso isn’t the only Texas city dealing with the Venezuelan gang.
Dallas Police spokeswoman Jennifer Pryor told The Epoch Times in a Sept. 10 email that gang activity in north Dallas has been linked to Tren de Aragua.
“Our department is collaborating with other agencies to address possible crimes linked to this and other gangs in our city. We are dedicated to preventing criminal activity in our community and ensuring the safety of our residents,” she wrote.
Gang’s Presence in Colorado Drew National Attention
The Venezuelan gang captured the attention of the nation in a viral video showing gun-toting gangsters seemingly operating with impunity at an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado.
Law firm Perkins Coie, which represents the lender for Whispering Pines, a 54-unit apartment complex at 1357 Helena Street in Aurora, investigated the situation.
Perkins Coie’s 10-page letter to city officials documented how Tren de Aragua took over the Whispering Pines apartments with threats of murder, beatings, and intimidation.
Evidence indicates that the Venezuelan gang members in Aurora also engaged in human trafficking, according to Perkins Coie attorney T. Markus Funk.
Extortion, unlawful firearms possession, and sexual abuse of minors allegedly occurred at the apartment complex, “targeting vulnerable Venezuelan and other immigrant populations,” the letter states.
In one case, according to Funk, a consultant for the apartment complex’s management company was so severely beaten that he had to go to the hospital. The incident was captured on videotape.
The city of Aurora has cited “isolated situations” in a statement. The Aurora Police Department didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for a tour of the affected buildings.
In a statement on Facebook on Sept. 11, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Public Safety Chair Danielle Jurinsky detailed the city’s efforts to combat the presence of the Venezuelan gang in their city.
Well before the issue came to national attention, they said, the Aurora police “had been arresting people for various criminal activities who had suspected, but not necessarily confirmed” connections to the gang.
Tren de Aragua’s presence in Aurora “is limited to specific properties, all of which the city has been addressing in various ways for months,” according to the statement.
Epoch Times Reporter Allan Stein contributed to this report.