Carl Luis Zambrano-Bolivar, 26, Jhonata Nahin Toro Gonzalez, 22, and Ehiker Morales Mendoza, 38, were recently arrested for the murder of Nilzuly Enrique Arneaud-Petit, 33, who was found dead Aug. 24 with a single gunshot wound to the head in Farmers Branch just outside Dallas, DHS officials said.
While police were responding to a report of a body, they learned of two juveniles possibly related to the victim walking on a service road about 10 miles away, according to the Farmers Branch Police Department.
Investigators caught up with the minors and were told the kids and Arneaud-Petit had been “forcibly taken by several unknown suspects from an apartment complex” in Dallas earlier that night, police said.
The suspects drove Andreau-Petit and the juveniles to the location in Farmers Branch, where they fatally shot the 33-year-old man, police said. The kids told investigators the suspects then fled with them in a sedan before releasing them on the service road in nearby Lewisville.
Andreau-Petit was an associate of the violent gangsters “and allegedly involved in a complex ATM theft operation targeting several locations nationwide,” police said.
He was accused of withholding money from other group members, which led to his kidnapping and execution, police said.
TdA members Zambrano-Bolivar and Toro Gonzalez were arrested in Aurora, Colo., in September by Denver’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations team, DHS officials said.
A third member of the feared prison gang, Mendoza, was busted Oct. 11 in Las Cruces, NM.
All three were in the country illegally, authorities said.
A fourth man also wanted in the murder, 29-year-old Jhonny Jesus Martinez Serrano, remains at large.
The three men in custody are expected to be extradited to Texas to be prosecuted on charges of capital murder and aggravated kidnapping, according to Homeland Security Investigations.
“Violent criminal organizations and transnational gangs like Tren de Aragua are a plague upon our communities that rely on fear and violence to [rain] terror on hardworking and law-abiding residents,” said HSI Dallas acting Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard.
“We have sent a resounding message that we are united in our efforts to dismantle these violent criminal networks and put an end to the lawlessness that they spread,” he added.
“Violent criminal organizations and transnational gangs like Tren de Aragua are a plague upon our communities that rely on fear and violence to [rain] terror on hardworking and law-abiding residents,” said HSI Dallas acting Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard.
The violent gang has been terrorizing cities across the US.
In August, the ruthless group made national headlines when frightening video capturing some of its gun-wielding members storming through an Aurora apartment complex went viral.
The Post was the first to report on TdA’s infiltration of Aurora, its takeover of several poorly maintained apartment complexes and its top leader, nicknamed “Cookie,” who was involved in at least two violent crimes.
TdA also has been blamed for a surge in violent crime in such tourist meccas as Times Square in Manhattan.