Two alleged members of Tren de Aragua were caught while on the run with two young kids after they allegedly murdered a man inside a Stamford, Connecticut, hotel room, cops say.
The Venezuelan migrants were arrested in Rensselaer, New York, as they were on the run for allegedly murdering and robbing a 59-year-old man in Connecticut.
Police in Rensselaer, New York, arrested Gregory Marlyn Galindez-Trias, 24, and Moises Alejandro Condollo-Urbaneja, 22, Wednesday as the two were trying to use a stolen credit card at an Amtrak station while accompanied by their children, ages 1 and 3, according to authorities.
Just 150 miles away and two days earlier, Trias and Urbaneja allegedly fatally shot Angel Samaniego in the chest at a Super 8 Hotel in Stamford and made off with the victim’s car, according to the Stamford Advocate.
Police in New York not only connected the two illegal migrants to the Stamford killing, but also to the violent Venezuelan prison gang TdA.
“Our investigation revealed both parties are in this country illegally from Venezuela,” the Rensselaer Police Department said in a statement.
“Both parties are believed to be affiliated with Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal organization from Venezuela.”
Members of the brutal Venezuelan prison gang have committed crimes in several US states, including New York, New Jersey, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Illinois, California, Wisconsin, Florida and Georgia, where they’ve shot cops, smuggled guns, trafficked female migrants for sex and committed violent robberies.
Rensselaer Police Chief Warren Famiglietti told The Post that Tren de Aragua hasn’t built a lasting presence in the city of 9,200 yet, but worries it could.
“I think it’s clear that that network is expanding and that we’re seeing these groups in places we’ve never seen before. So is it possible it’s going to end up here? For sure. But has it happened yet? No, Everything’s transient right now,”
The area has seen a recent uptick in migrant arrivals, which the city is not well-equipped to handle, said Famiglietti.
“It’s not something that we’ve really ever dealt with before. It worries me because we’re a small city with 3.3 square miles. We have 10,000 residents. We do not have a lot of resources so we rely heavily on county resources, and those are not available all the time,” said Famiglietti.
“So we a lot of times we just don’t have the resources that these that people need. So is this alarming to me? Absolutely. Just because we can’t provide certain resources.”
ICE has lodged detainers against both suspects, per the Rensselaer Police Department.
Trias crossed the border near Fort Brown, Texas in 2022 and was quickly released by federal immigration authorities, while Urbaneja is believed to have snuck in as a “gotaway” tagged as “100% Tren de Aragua,” according to Fox News.
The two kids, one of whom is a US citizen and the other is Venezuelan, were handed over to Child Protective Services, according to the Stamford Advocate. Trias referred to the two kids as “my children” in court.
The alleged killers were extradited to Connecticut and charged with larceny, fleeing justice, identity theft and are each being held on $2 million bonds, according to the Stamford Police Department.