Migrants with potential gang tattoos were spotted on the streets of El Paso, Texas, this week, spreading fresh fear gangs from south of the border are sending members to wreak havoc in the US.
Three men with crown tattoos on their necks were spotted by The Post outside the city’s Sacred Heart Church Wednesday — a location which has long been a refuge for those who have crossed the border illegally, as they are not able to enter shelters run by the city.
Memos circulated by the Department of Homeland Security and New York Police Department have identified crown tattoos, particularly on the neck, as having gang associations; including with the Latin Kings and El Tren de Aragua crews.
Yorbis, one of the migrants with the neck tattoos, spoke to The Post about the state’s new law allowing police to arrest those who have entered the country illegally. The law, known as SB4, is currently blocked while it is debated in the courts.
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“It doesn’t worry me,” Yorbis, who is Venezuelan and didn’t want to give a last name, said while riding a bike up and down the street. He wouldn’t answer further questions, and it remains unknown is Yorbis is affiliated with a gang.
One of the other tattooed migrants covered his neck showing the crown tattoo when he saw The Post was filming him.
The tattooed migrants and their friends appeared different to many of the near penniless, exhausted hordes who trekked for thousands of miles through south and Central America which The Post spoke to in El Paso last year.
One of the Venezuelan crew had a car he said he had bought in Texas for $2,000 which had temporary paper license plates. The migrant, who did not identify himself, said he owned the car and is in the country legally with a court date in 2025. He said he had been working as a driver for Uber.
Another migrant in the group had an ankle monitor, placed on him by federal authorities as part of his parole allowing him in the country.
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The men had become friends, leaving their families back in Venezuela, they said. The men would beg passing drivers for cash, latching onto moving cars.
They also had two pitbulls on leashes which they had taken in.
El Paso is the same border crossing where the alleged killer of Laken Riley came into the US.
Jose Ibarra, accused of killing Riley on Feb 22 this year, was a member of El Tren de Aragua, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) documents previously obtained by The Post. He arrived in the country in September 2022.
Jose’s brother Diego Ibarra, who is also a member of the gang, entered the country illegally in El Paso as well and was bearing the “five-point crown on the left side of his neck,” according ICE documents.
Residents of the area told The Post they don’t feel secure in their own neighborhoods.
El Pasoan Dolores Chacon told The Post that she feels “unsafe,” sharing that her local drug store had too much migrant theft that they had to lock up items.
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“I’ve seen more products being locked up. I was so surprised seeing it here,” Chacon said.
“If there’s one, there’s more,” Chacon said of the Ibarra brothers’ crossings in the area.
Local Bill Jackson told The Post: “I don’t feel safe in my community.”
Jackson, who is a retired Border Patrol agent, said he “absolutely” believes gang members who come through El Paso will be coming to cities across the US.
The NYPD recently informed officers of the Venezuelan gang’s “newly established presence in New York City” that could “incite … stabbings, assaults and robberies,” sharing a number of tattoos to look out for, including the crown.
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Along with seeing more El Tren de Aragua activity, El Paso has also been a hub for migrants on the terror watchlist.
Border Patrol nabbed Lebanese national Basel Bassel Ebbadi, 22, on March 9 the area, according to an internal agency memo first obtained by The Post. While in custody, Ebbadi subsequently told health personnel he came to the US “to try to make a bomb here” and later said he’s a member of Hezbollah, according to the memo.
Subsequent paperwork seen by The Post shows he then tried to pass his bomb threat off as “a joke” but he was later confirmed as a “positive match” on the terror watchlist.
The day before Ebbadi was apprehended, Border Patrol arrested Colombian national Jerminton Genaro-Quinones Carvajal, a former member of the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC), in the area.
