Federal authorities have unsealed an indictment charging five individuals linked to the Venezuelan transnational group Tren de Aragua with kidnapping and murder in connection with a 2024 incident in Farmers Branch. The announcement was made during a Department of Justice press conference led by Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, which highlighted a broader federal effort to dismantle the gang, recently designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration.
The charges stem from an August 24, 2024, event in the Dallas suburb. According to Ryan Rabel, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, the incident began when members of the gang kidnapped a man and two children, identified as his 13-year-old daughter and 12-year-old nephew. The captors used zip ties to restrain the victims while demanding a ransom.
When the family was unable to pay, the group stopped near a bridge in Dallas and ordered the man to jump. Rabel stated that when the man refused and tried to flee, a gang member shot him in front of the children. Farmers Branch police later found the man dead on the roadside with a single gunshot wound to the head. The two children were left behind but survived.
A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Texas has charged the five defendants with interstate racketeering, murder, kidnapping, and financial schemes involving ATM jackpotting. The defendants are all foreign nationals who entered the United States illegally. They are identified as Hector Garcia Zuniga, known as Murray, who is described as a high-ranking official in the gang; Carlos Luis Zambrano Bolivar; Yanni Jesus Serrano; Yonatan Toro Gonzalez; and Ejaiquer Mendoza.
Officials noted that three of the suspects are currently in U.S. custody for separate offenses, one is held in Colombia, and an international investigation continues. Federal officials criticized the previous administration, stating that all eight TDA members charged in this Texas case and a concurrent Chicago murder case crossed the southern border between December 2021 and April 2024.
