A small military of 200 regulation enforcement officers — together with visiting FBI SWAT groups from Albuquerque, Phoenix, San Diego and Las Vegas — took half in raids throughout El Paso concentrating on a rising prison-born gang often known as Chuco Tango.
The raids at daybreak on Thursday, Aug. 29, have been a part of Operation Rock Water, a long-term federal organized crime investigation lead by the FBI and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration concentrating on the El Paso gang.
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The “takedown” resulted in 22 arrests on Thursday of accused Chuco Tango gang members, associates and drug sellers accused of promoting fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and unlawful firearms on the streets of El Paso, federal regulation enforcement officers stated.
The arrests occurred in El Paso, Horizon Metropolis, Socorro, and Las Cruces and Anthony, New Mexico with prisoners taken to be processed contained in the El Paso County Coliseum on account of giant variety of arrests, FBI officers stated.
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The arrestees face varied federal and state prices together with drug conspiracy, possession of a managed substance with the intent to distribute and illegal possession of a firearm by a felon.
The operation included the Texas Division of Public Security together with space police departments and different federal businesses.
‘Not a one and performed’
U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza of the Western District of Texas, who was previously El Paso’s district lawyer, stated he was “extraordinarily proud” of the federal, state and El Paso-area regulation enforcement officers who took half in a big and complicated investigation.
“All of them are working always to ensure this neighborhood is secure. This was a long-term operation, not a one and performed,” Esparza stated at a information convention within the Richard C. White Federal Constructing in Downtown El Paso.
“I’ve lived on this neighborhood a really very long time. I’m pleased with the truth that we’re secure neighborhood … The Chuco Tango gang is one among many issues we have now however we’re slowly chipping away,” stated Esparza, whose workplace is predicated in San Antonio.
If convicted, some defendants might face federal punishments starting from 5 years as much as life in jail, stated Esparza, including that the sale of fentanyl is a foremost concern.
“Fentanyl on this neighborhood is an actual drawback, identical to it’s throughout the state and the nation,” Esparza stated. “Defending our communities and our family members from this harmful drug and poison that’s fentanyl is a precedence for the Justice Division.”
Who was arrested within the Chuco Tango raids in El Paso?
Operation Rock Water, the federal organized crime investigation into Chuco Tango, originated 4 years in the past. The most recent arrests are a part of a case that started in October-November 2023 with federal indictments handed up earlier this month, officers stated. Some defendants have been already in jail on different prices.
The U.S. Division of Justice, FBI and DEA officers recognized these arrested as:
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Clarissa Inez Santana
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Daniel Baeza aka “Racoon”
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Hector Chamorro
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Angel Renee Corral aka “Completely happy”
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Antonio “Omar” Gamboa
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Robert Gurrola aka “Bobby Barker” aka “Bobby Baker”
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Ricardo Moreno
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Andrew Solorio aka “Tokes”
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Adam Vazquez
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Brandon Garcia
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Jacqueline Perez
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Aileen Gonzalez
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Byanka Sambrano
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Thomas Payan
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Steven Kuehn
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Cassandra Web page Silva
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Tanya Campechano
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Alejandro Morrill
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Zoilo Romero
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Alexander Rangel
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Zulema Marin
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Jessica Rodarte
Throughout the afternoon information convention, federal brokers stated there have been 4 fugitives nonetheless sought —Jonathan Blanco, Carlos Flores, Adriel Belmont and Jessica Rodarte. By Thursday night, Rodarte was in custody, a DEA spokesman stated. Particular prices for every suspect weren’t disclosed.
Recommendations on the placement of the fugitives could be made to the DEA by calling 915-832-6000 or visiting the web site https://www.dea.gov/submit-tip or the FBI at 915-832-5000.
“We’ll proceed to pursue them till they’re arrested,” DEA El Paso Division Particular Agent in Cost Towanda Thorne-James stated on the information convention.
Since Operation Rock Water started 4 years in the past, there have been 44 arrests, 65 drug seizures, 25 firearms seized and even the seizure of military-grade explosives, FBI El Paso Performing Particular Agent in Cost Britton Boyd stated.
‘La Chely,’ Chuco Tango connection
Chuco Tango was linked to “La Chely,” Michelle Angelica Pineda, the Juárez girl accused of main a bloodthirsty crew of the Aristas Asesinos avenue gang in Juárez that cut out the hearts from the dismembered our bodies of its victims as choices to La Santa Muerte.
The El Paso Police Division via monitored jail telephone calls and intelligence “have been in a position to tie La Chely speaking straight with Chuco Tango gang members,” Boyd stated.
In February, the knowledge supplied a lead for the FBI El Paso Protected Streets Gang Job Drive and U.S. Border Patrol to find and arrest Pineda at a motel in East El Paso. She was deported again to her native Mexico, the place she is accused of 5 homicides.
Chuco Tango group
Chuco Tango — which will get its identify from the “El Chuco” nickname for El Paso — is the El Paso model of the Tango Blast gang, which has cliques in the key cities of Texas.
Tango Blast started as self-protection teams in jail, whose members typically declare they don’t seem to be a gang. The identify Tango reportedly comes from a Spanish slang time period for “hometown.” Some declare the identify is an acronym for “Collectively In opposition to Unfavourable Gang Organizations.”
Chuco Tango has a horizontal management mannequin not like the ranks within the military-style hierarchy of jail gangs fashioned by prior generations, such because the Barrio Azteca and the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. Tangos do not need a “blood in, blood out” membership requirement.
The gang operates exterior of jail in small, loosely organized cells, based on Texas Division of Public Security gang-threat stories.
There was violent battle previously between Chuco Tango and El Paso’s long-established Barrio Azteca jail gang due to Chuco Tango’s refusal to pay the Aztecas’ “avenue tax” to deal medicine in El Paso.
UTEP Miners’ pickaxe in Chuco Tango tattoos
Chuco Tango members generally have tattoos of “CT” and “320,” for C and T, the third and twentieth letters of the alphabet, based on gang members’ social media posts and jail documentary shows. One model of the “CT” tattoo is a C intertwined with the UTEP-style pickaxe for the T.
Tango members might also have tattoos with the identify of their metropolis and logos of sports activities groups as a present of hometown pleasure, although such logos could not essentially be gang associated on their very own, based on regulation enforcement gang info.
The unique Tango teams — often known as the “4 Horsemen” — are Houstone (Houston), D-City (Dallas), Foritos (Fort Value) and ATX or “Capirucha” (the capital) in Austin, based on Texas DPS stories. There may be additionally Tango Orejon in San Antonio, a regional group named West Texas or WTX together with Corpitos from Corpus Christi and the Vallucos from the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.
This text initially appeared on El Paso Occasions: Chuco Tango takedown: FBI, DEA arrest El Paso gangsters
