During a federal immigration sweep in New York City Tuesday morning, a suspected member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, who was wanted in connection with accusations out of Aurora, Colorado, was taken into custody.
According to authorities, US Homeland Security Investigations and the Drug Enforcement Administration apprehended 26-year-old Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco in the Bronx early Tuesday.
According to the Aurora Police Department, he was wanted for burglary and felony threatening in connection with a camera-captured incident at an Aurora apartment complex last August.
According to court filings in Manhattan federal court, Zambrano-Pacheco was accused of having a gun and ammo while on the run.
According to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, he may be imprisoned for up to 15 years if found guilty on that charge.
Jacqueline Cistaro, his lawyer, refused to comment on the issue on Wednesday.
A top law enforcement source with knowledge of the operation said that he is a high-ranking member of the Tren de Aragua gang. According to the source, the arrest was one of several immigration enforcement operations aimed at alleged gang members.
Kristi Noem, the recently appointed secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, went on the sweep with law enforcement and shared numerous posts about it on her X account.
The widely reported arrest coincides with at least two agencies helping US immigration agents with sweeps instructing its staff to make sure their attire prominently displays their agency in case they are filmed by reporters.
Over 4,000 people have been arrested in the past four days as part of the Trump administration’s swift crackdown on undocumented immigrants nationwide, including Zambrano-Pacheco.
Members of the Tren de Aragua gang in Atlanta and New York City are among those in that group who have been convicted of or charged with significant crimes.
Officials said Wednesday that ten suspected members and associates of the international gang had been charged with gun trafficking in New York City.
According to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, they were identified in a 120-count indictment and are charged with conspiracy, unlawful possession of a weapon, and criminal sale of a handgun.
After a lengthy undercover operation, detectives found 34 firearms, including two assault weapons, and 48 grams of a substance known as “pink cocaine,” Katz stated in a news release.
Prosecutors said that numerous firearms, which ranged in price from $1,200 to $2,800, were “sold in broad daylight,” including at a parking lot of a shopping center.
According to the announcement, the Venezuelan gang’s operations were “as far as Texas and Colorado, with plans to expand to Colombia.”
Additionally, border czar Tom Homan has described the immigration sweeps as resulting in “collateral arrests,” a bloodless euphemism for the detention and arrest of foreign nationals who have no criminal history.
Compared to the Biden administration, which averaged roughly 300 immigration arrests per day for the fiscal year that concluded in October 2024, the number of arrests is a substantial increase.
A suspected gang leader is charged with two felonies
According to police, Zambrano-Pacheco was wanted on a warrant out of Aurora on two felony counts related to an August 18 security camera footage of six armed individuals knocking on doors at an apartment complex.
Oswaldo Jose Dabion Araujo, 25, was shot and killed around ten minutes later, according to the police.
As part of his promise to crack down on illegal immigration, Donald Trump made repeated references to Aurora throughout his presidential campaign, claiming that immigrants were forcefully occupying buildings in the city.
The security camera footage also went viral on social media.
According to the criminal complaint, early on Tuesday morning, police tracked Zambrano-Pacheco to a three-bedroom apartment in the Bronx using location data from his cell phone.
According to the complaint, when officers located Zambrano-Pacheco and his girlfriend in a bedroom, they found a pistol in a neighboring dresser drawer that was loaded with nine bullets.
According to the court filings, Zambrano-Pacheco denied having the gun or being aware that it was in the room.
Prosecutors ordered Zambrano-Pacheco to be held at a court hearing on Wednesday. According to court documents, his hearing has been set for February 28.
Five of the six guys are currently in custody, while the sixth is wanted, according to police, more than five months after the Aurora incident.
According to authorities, two people were taken into custody in the Bronx on November 27 during a gang task force investigation.
According to authorities, another was detained in Aurora in December on suspicion of helping illegal immigrants abduct a married couple from the same apartment building.
According to police chief Todd Chamberlain, the event was “without question a gang incident,” and both the victims and the offenders are immigrants from Venezuela.
As part of “Operation Safe Haven,” an Aurora Police task force established to look into crimes involving the migrant community, the warrant for Zambrano-Pacheco was issued, according to police.
According to the most recent estimates from the Pew Research Center, there are around 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.
At least 75 arrests per day are the goal set by the Trump administration for each of the 25 ICE field offices.
The temptation to make a lot of arrests could lead to harsh tactics, according to John Sandweg, the former acting director of ICE during the Obama administration.
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