Police in San Antonio say a Venezuelan migrant is charged in the July capital murder of a teenager. The man is suspected of being a gun trafficker and Tren de Aragua gang member and was released by the Biden administration after illegally entering the U.S.
San Antonio law enforcement sources told CBS Austin they arrested Eiber Gabriel Sira-Vargas, 29, for the alleged kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Alexis Jose Vargas. Court records show Sira-Vargas entered the U.S. illegally and was released by Border Patrol to wait for an immigration hearing. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers detained the Venezuelan migrant in September as part of a multi-agency operation.
Police say the Venezuelan migrant is suspected of being a Tren de Aragua gang member. He was ordered removed by an immigration judge in October.
In July, police began investigating the shooting death of the teenager. A surviving witness said they had been kidnapped and transported to a field near a quarry. The surviving witness pretended to be dead and called police after Sira-Vargas left the scene, the report states. Multiple witnesses identified Sira-Vargas as one of the men carrying out the attack.
CBS Austin reported:
During the initial investigation, detectives discovered an armed robbery had been reported in close proximity to the shooting. Upon interviewing the victim of that robbery, investigators received limited information. However, investigators would learn that the victim had been with Alexis Jose Vargas at the time of his death. Detectives went to interview that victim again, who was now a witness to the homicide. He was being detained at an ICE facility in Colorado, where he admitted he had misled police before his apprehension. The witness told police that he and Alexis Jose Vargas had been in an apartment where he, Vargas, and a third person, were detained by armed suspects, allegedly including Sira-Vargas.
The victim told investigators Eiber Gabriel Sira-Vargas and other suspects forced him and Alexis Jose Vargas at gunpoint into a vehicle and drove them to a field along Highway 281. They were forced out of the vehicle, and Sira-Vargas opened fire. Alexis Jose Vargas died as a result of his injuries, but the witness survived, playing dead until the suspects fled the scene.
The injured witness waived down a passing vehicle. When police responded, he told officers that he had been robbed at gunpoint, out of fear that the suspects may attempt to kill him again. The witness later identified Sira-Vargas as one of the perpetrators of the shooting.
Sira-Vargas remains in the Bexar County jail on bonds totaling $2 million. He is charged with kidnapping and capital murder.
In November, ERO officers in Dallas announced the arrest of three other Tren de Aragua gang members wanted for the alleged murder of 33-year-old Nizuly Enrique Arneaud-Petit.
ICE officials stated:
ERO Denver arrested Carl Luis Zambrano-Bolivar, 26, and Jhonata Nahin Toro Gonzalez, 22, Sept. 26 in Aurora, Colorado. Ehiker Morales Mendoza, 38, was arrested by HSI Las Cruces, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Border Patrol Oct. 11 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. All three individuals, who are expected to be extradited to Texas to face prosecution for capital murder and aggravated kidnapping, are illegally present Venezuelan nationals and documented members of Tren de Aragua, a brutal transnational criminal street gang from Venezuela.
ERO officers said they were also hunting a fourth Tren de Aragua gang member for the alleged murder of 29-year-old Jhonny Jesus Martinez Serrano.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced major law enforcement actions against Tren de Aragua gang members earlier this year. During an exclusive interview with Breitbart Texas in late September, Governor Abbott said he is making all available tools available to law enforcement to take action against the violent TdA gang.
Governor Abbott designated the Venezuelan prison gang as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, unleashing additional law enforcement tools to be employed against TdA gang members.
As part of the State’s crackdown on TdA gang members, Governor Abbott posted a reward of $5,000 for “any information that leads to the identification and arrest of known or suspected members of this gang who have been or are involved in heinous crimes. Texas will not let these thugs use our state as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens.”
“Our goal is to make sure we find them, identify them, locate them, arrest them, and lock them up,” Abbott stated during the Friday interview.
Breitbart Texas reported in October that Texas Department of Public Safety troopers arrested 32-year-old Jorgenys Robertson Cova in Houston for allegedly trying to recruit high school students into the gang.
Two other suspected Tren de Aragua gang members are charged in the Houston murder and sexual assault of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungary.
A search warrant affidavit obtained by Fox 26 on Tuesday revealed that police believe that the two Venezuelan migrants, Franklin Pena and Johan Martinez-Rangel, are possibly members of the TDA gang. These two men reportedly entered the U.S. illegally and were released by the Biden-Harris administration.
Former ICE Director Ronald Vitiello said that President Donald Trump’s planned mass deportation operations will “quickly” dismantle the Tren de Aragua gang, Breitbart reported.
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday morning talk show. He also serves as president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products.