A suspected member of the dangerous Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang was arrested in Raleigh on Feb. 8 by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other officials.
ICE issued a press release Wednesday on the arrest of twenty-four-year-old Venezuelan national Ricardo Padillia-Granadillo. He was arrested at a home in Raleigh where a handgun, ammunition, and ten other illegal Venezuelan migrants were discovered.
Padillia-Granadillo is also a suspect in a mass shooting in Chicago, is wanted on federal charges for illegal entry into the United States and had a warrant for his arrest.
According to the report Granadillo illegally entered the US near El Paso, Texas, on Oct. 1, 2022. Officials said the US Border Patrol encountered him, after which he was paroled into the country and given a notice to appear in court. But he never showed up for his immigration appointment on Sept. 12. The US Attorney for the Western District of Texas later issued an arrest warrant.
Law enforcement officers with ICE, Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations, and the US Marshals Service arrested Granadillo at a home in Raleigh without incident.
His arrest is among a crackdown on the violent gang across the country, including the indictment of eight members accused of multiple federal crimes, including sex trafficking, in Tennessee.
Homeland Security officials had warned Americans in November that Tren de Aragua had expanded its territory into 16 states, including North Carolina.
charlotte arrest in september
It’s not the first time that a Tren de Aragua gang member was arrested in the Tar Heel State.
According to WBTV, Eleazer Kasshoggi Mujica-Rojas, also known as La Fresa, was arrested in Charlotte on Sept. 1. He is an alleged member of the gang and was wanted in Texas.
Mujica-Rojas is accused of illegally entering the US in 2022 and allegedly lying to acquire an Employment Authorization Card, according to a July criminal complaint filed in a US District Court in Texas. The man reportedly swam across the Rio Grande River and entered the US near Eagle Pass, Texas.
He was first arrested in July 2022 in Orlando, Florida, based on domestic violence charges. The charges were later dropped.
Mujica-Rojas reportedly filed an asylum claim with US Citizenship and Immigration Services in Texas on Aug. 28, 2023, and his Employment Authorization Card was approved on Feb. 27.
Authorities alleged that he is associated with crimes such as homicide, kidnapping, terrorism, human trafficking, and drug trafficking carried out by the gang in the US.
Mujica-Rojas is accused of evading police in September 2023 during a law enforcement operation against gang members in the US.
An arrest warrant was issued for him in December 2023 for several crimes, including terrorism, trafficking in arms and ammunition, money laundering, aggravated extortion, and association to crime.
House Bill 10
The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association (NCSA) notified sheriffs in November about the passage of House Bill 10, a new law taking effect on December 1, that requires all law enforcement officers to cooperate with federal immigration detainers for undocumented immigrants.
The NCSA told the Carolina Journal that it was informing all 100 sheriffs across the state and their key personnel of the details of the legislation in its Weekly Legislative Report, ensuring all local law enforcement leaders are aware of the new legal requirements.
In a comment to the Carolina Journal, NCSA emphasized that the law is straightforward and should not require any additional training for sheriffs to implement. However, the Association has no role in overseeing how sheriffs enforce HB 10, leaving compliance to individual counties.
Over 90 of the state’s 100 counties comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests, but some sheriffs in urban counties previously vowed to be ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions, refusing to comply ICE requests, which the bill intends to address. Sheriff Garry McFadden of Mecklenburg County was one of the most vocal of those who refused.
Problems from illegal migration have ranged from Tren de Aragua taking over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado; to the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray of Texas by two Venezuela nationals; to the overwhelming problem of drugs like fentanyl coming over the border.
fort bragg marines head to the southern border
Securing the border had been a campaign promise of President Donald Trump, reiterated in his inauguration speech. On his first day in office, Trump declared a national emergency at the US southern border.
Soldiers from the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, previously Fort Liberty, are said to be among the nearly 1,500 active-duty soldiers the Pentagon is set to deploy to the southern border to help with the suppression of illegal immigration.
There will also be several hundred Marines stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some of the detained migrants will be held.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that more than 8,000 immigrants have been arrested since Jan. 20 as part of Trump’s plan to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally, although hundreds of those arrested have since been released back into the US.
Still others are being detained in federal jails in Los Angeles, Miami, and Philadelphia, and federal prisons in Atlanta; Leavenworth, Kansas; and Berlin, New Hampshire.
Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan told NewsNation Tuesday that he is “not satisfied” with the number of ICE arrests. He said hundreds of thousands need to be arrested, but there are leaks in sanctuary cities warning them ahead of time.