The Dallas invasion shows that the threat of Venezuelan gangs is real

The violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang is becoming a household name in the United States, rolling off the tongues of Republican politicians to attack the border policies of the Biden administration. Many Democrats, for their part, want you to dismiss reports of gang activity in the US as exaggeration in an election year.

Beware of political rhetoric that paints all Venezuelan immigrants as violent criminals. The vast majority of them are not. But Tren de Aragua and a rival gang known as the Anti-Tren are the real threat. While we don’t know the full extent of their presence and crimes in the US, law enforcement records indicate that their tentacles have reached as far as Texas and Dallas. The recent home invasion in Bluffview near Dallas Love Field underscores why local police departments must be on the alert, working with federal partners to confront this gang threat before it grows deeper in North Texas.

On September 21, four men cornered a woman as she pulled into her garage and forced her into the house at gunpoint. According to a police affidavit, the woman was pistol-whipped and her own clothes were tied up while the men ransacked her home. They stole $75,000 in jewelry, designer purses, a bank card and the woman’s iPhone.

Authorities linked a fingerprint at the crime scene to a Venezuelan man named Manuel Hernandez Hernandez, 28, who admitted to being present during the robbery and implicating four other suspects, including the getaway driver, according to a police affidavit . Hernandez Hernandez told police that the other suspects were members of the Anti-Tren gang — a group made up of former Tren de Aragua members — and that they were involved in sex trafficking. The man told detectives that he has known one of the suspects for 15 years and that they grew up together.

“Manuel Hernandez-Hernandez maintained that he was not part of a gang, but other members were known to be involved in facilitating prostitution and were in possession of firearms,” ​​Dallas police said in a statement.

We are concerned about what we have learned about the men’s records. Hernandez Hernandez crossed the border without being checked in March near El Paso, federal officials said, and in May he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and was sentenced to three days in jail. Where exactly, the officials did not say.

Colleyville police arrested Hernandez Hernandez after a traffic stop on Sept. 19, days before the Dallas robbery. He was charged with five minor offenses, including possession of drug paraphernalia and driving without a license, and was released from jail the next day, records show. A Colleyville police spokeswoman told us Hernandez was not in an immigration detainer at the time Hernandez was released.

An immigration detainer is a notice that tells local officials that federal authorities plan to take into custody a suspect who is not a U.S. citizen and is eligible for deportation.

Another suspect, Carlos Alberto Martinez Silva, arrived at a US port of entry in California in July. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, he was allowed into the country pending immigration proceedings.

Two other robbery suspects — Ian Torrealba Sanabria and Wilmer Colmenares Gonzalez — were confronted by Border Patrol agents in 2023 near Eagle Pass and Brownsville, respectively. Both were released pending trial in immigration court in Dallas in January 2025.

We don’t know how a fifth suspect, Jarlen Flores Guana, got into the U.S. He and four other robbery suspects are currently on immigration detainers, according to ICE and county documents.

Our newsroom reached out to the Dallas Police Department to ask about the potential presence of Venezuelan gangs. The department declined our request for an interview.

We also reached out to the Dallas office of the FBI. The agency outlined its efforts to investigate gangs. It said in a statement that it pursues violent gangs with its local and state partners through the Violent Gang Safe Streets Task Force and that it works closely with the community to identify sources and find leads.

Not surprisingly, would-be gang members seeped across the southern border. A recent federal audit found that the Department of Homeland Security’s technology and procedures were “not fully effective” in screening and vetting of asylum applicants. The agency does not screen asylum seekers for potential threats during the months and years it takes to process hundreds of thousands of asylum applications.

This problem is exacerbated when it comes to arrivals from Venezuela, a country with which the US has no diplomatic ties or data-sharing agreements.

Local police cannot control immigration screening protocols, but they can actively share intelligence with other law enforcement agencies and federal partners, especially when dealing with crimes such as sex trafficking, which often cross city and state lines.

Earlier this year, three Venezuelan nationals linked to Tren de Aragua were indicted in a sex-trafficking operation. According to a federal criminal complaint, the victim told Border Patrol agents in El Paso that a gang member paid to smuggle her into the U.S. and forced her to pay off the debt through prostitution. The woman said the gang had “stashes” in Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, New Jersey and Florida, and that up to 30 women were trafficked. According to the complaint, local authorities searched the Baton Rouge apartment after a Spanish-speaking woman called to say she was a victim of human trafficking. The police found money, condoms and accounting books.

“The ledgers appeared to document how much money each victim made each day and how much of their ‘debt’ was left,” the federal complaint said.

Bianca Davis, CEO of New Friends New Life, a Dallas-based nonprofit that helps victims of human trafficking, told us that the vast majority of people she helps are locals, not immigrants. She said she expects the number of immigrants the organization helps to grow as it expands its reach and immigrant communities become more established.

Davis emphasized that the sex trade can be invisible and does not require victims to cross borders or even zip codes.

It’s important to see the big picture here and reject the fearmongering that blames illegal immigrants for all the crime in our neighborhoods and cities. At the same time, our police, state and federal agencies must remain vigilant against international criminal groups and proactively share information with each other that can help our communities avert threats.

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