HOUSTON — These bad hombres can run, but they can’t hide.
A Tren de Aragua gangbanger who is wanted for murder in Dallas and holed up in an apartment in Houston got the surprise of his life earlier this month when federal agents swarmed him as part of President Trump’s deportation raids across the US.
The Post was there with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as they staked out the alleged killer’s hideout in a crime-ridden neighborhood with a large migrant community.
Federal agents had received a report that the “documented” member of the Venezuelan prison gang was in the area after he was spotted walking his dog.
For hours, officers from ICE and a host of other federal agencies waited for the target to show himself again.
When he finally stepped outside, the baby-faced gangbanger — whom authorities asked The Post not the name because he was still being processed — looked stunned as he was swarmed from behind by burly feds as he crossed the courtyard of the complex.
He quickly gave up without a fight, his face drained of color as it dawned on him what was happening.
The agents had an arrest warrant from authorities in Dallas and wanted to get him when he was not in his element to ensure he couldn’t grab a weapon and fight back.
The Trump administration’s mass deportation effort had already yielded 11,000 illegal migrant arrests in its first 18 days and the White House is pushing for more.
And it was business as usual again on Tuesday — with FBI agents arresting three alleged Tren de Aragua gangbangers at another Houston apartment complex after they were allegedly linked to a multi-state “sex trafficking ring that threatened and abused victims.”
Agents with the FBI and HSI could be seen cuffing the alleged perps at a local apartment complex in images shared on X.
The Tren de Aragua gangbanger was just one of a handful of migrant criminals pulled off the streets during The Post’s ride-along.
Agents from the multiple federal agencies met up with ICE at 5 a.m. that day to suit up and brief on their illegal migrant criminal targets for the day.
ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford told The Post the arrest is “a huge win.”
“That’s an alleged murderer that we’re getting out of the community and off the streets here in Houston so he cannot reoffend and further victimize other folks in the community,” Bradford said.
ICE officers and agents are identifying targets, conducting background investigations and doing surveillance to ensure they’re getting the worst of the worst off the streets, the Houston ICE chief said.
“When we leave this building, we know exactly who we’re going after in the streets,” Bradford said.
Bradford said the agency’s operations are “targeted,” adding: “We don’t do anything indiscriminately, we’re not going to areas and doing area control or anything like that.”
Tren de Aragua has unleashed violent crime throughout the US after entering the US during the Biden years with massive waves of illegal migrants. One well-known example of Tren de Aragua’s terror in the US is the brutal murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.
For nearly a year, the gangbangers were largely shielded from deportation because the Maduro regime refused to accept the removal flights from the US after the Biden admin reimposed sanctions.
Following a recent meeting with the US envoy Richard Grenell, the Maduro regime agreed to accept the flights and took back two planeloads Monday that carried roughly 200 Venezuelan nationals.
