A seven-month manhunt by law enforcement has culminated in the arrest of Venezuelan migrant Gabriel Enrique Angarita Carrasquero, aged 22, in connection with an infamous violent riot at the El Paso border in Texas on March 2024, when hundreds of migrants stormed a border fence.
He is charged with having coordinated the whole violent melee and is suspected to have operated with other organized criminal groups that were involved in that incident.
The March Border Riot
The border clash in El Paso took place when a large contingent of 211 migrants managed to overpower national guardsmen stationed at a barrier to enter the United States. The scene was chaotic when rioters clashed with the soldiers, resulting in violence. In fact, some footage from the rioting event showed a migrant crush a soldier’s knee into the ground, which displayed the intensity and the risks faced by law enforcement in dealing with the situation.
It is believed that Carrasquero was the central coordinator behind this uprising. Reports state that he organized the riot and orchestrated the migrants in breaking through the wire fence. The officials feel that Carrasquero dropped a gate down using a rope to facilitate the inflow of the migrants to the United States. Allegedly, it has earned him charges in relation to rioting and assault.
Carrasquero was detained by the police shortly after the riot was videotaped. However, in a twist of events, federal officials released him before Texas state authorities could take over. Despite video evidence linking him to the riot, border agents reportedly failed to examine the footage thoroughly, which ultimately led to his early release.
The situation became even murkier when Carrasquero, after being released, reported to Border Patrol agents that he planned to go to Arizona. Still, he was later spotted in October during a traffic stop in Des Moines, Iowa. State police took him into custody after realizing there was an active warrant against his arrest from Texas.
Evidence And Testimonies from Witnesses Against Carrasquero
Internal reports and testimonies from other migrants indicate that Carrasquero was instrumental in the fracas. A migrant witness who assisted the investigation confirmed that Carrasquero was the ringleader of the mob, that he broke open the gate of the border using a rope, and that there was evidence of rioting and assault against him in the video footage of the riot.
Currently, Carrasquero is in state custody in El Paso, Texas, as he awaits the legal proceedings.
While Carrasquero’s arrest was a big break, it was not the only one connected to the March riot. A second suspect, 35-year-old Juan Jose Colorado Gutierrez, was apprehended shortly after the riot. Authorities had tracked him down because he was wearing an ICE ankle monitor at the time of his detention. The reasons for his monitoring are not clear, but his swift capture was attributed to this surveillance.
It is interesting that from the 211 migrants who initially formed part of the breach, 124 were let go by ICE. These releases were part of the general policy of the Biden administration to detain only people considered serious threats to national security.
Carrasquero’s Gang Ties
Relatedly, in a September 2024 statement, Texas Governor Greg Abbott exposed that most of the rioters, including Carrasquero, were found to have connections with Venezuela’s infamous criminal gang called Tren de Aragua. Such revelations raise increasing concerns that border incidents increasingly involve organized crime and increase the complexities of law enforcement efforts.
This follows the violence the state witnessed, and to minimize deaths in confrontations at the border, Texas has now armed soldiers and police with non-lethal pepper ball weapons. In addition to this, the state is working on preventing the next occurrence as the tensions across the border keep increasing.
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