RENSSELAER, N.Y. (TNND) — Two illegal Venezuelan migrants with suspected ties to transnational criminal gang Tren de Aragua were arrested in New York Wednesday in connection with a Connecticut homicide investigation.
22-year-old Moises Alejandro Candollo-Urbaneja and 24-year-old Gregory Marlyn Galindez-Trias were arrested near the Amtrak train station in Rensselaer, New York. Local authorities there were notified that a credit card allegedly stolen from a homicide victim in Connecticut was used at the station.
The credit card belonged to 59-year-old Angel Samaniego, who was killed in an Oct. 14 shooting at a Super 8 Hotel in Stamford, Connecticut, according to the Stamford Police Department. The hotel is roughly 150 miles away from the Rensselaer Amtrak station.
The Rensselaer City Police Department (RCPD) detainedCandollo-Urbaneja andGalindez-Trias after determining they were the individuals using the credit card. The two had 1-year-old and 3-year-old children with them, both of whom wereturned over to Rensselaer County Child Protective Services, authorities said.
RCPD's investigation determined bothCandollo-Urbaneja and Galindez-Trias are in the U.S. illegally from Venezuela. Authorities believe both are also members of Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang from Venezuela.
The two migrants were arraigned in Rensselaer City Court on Thursday. They were referred to Rensselaer County Jail while waiting to be transported to Stamford to face criminal charges.
The arrests come as officials and politicians nationwide take a heightened focus on Tren de Aragua presence in the U.S. Former President Donald Trump during an Aurora, Colorado rally last week announced he would launch "Operation Aurora" if elected, a removal program targeting criminal gang members living in the U.S. illegally.
The program's name resembles that of an operation carried out by police in San Antonio, Texas this month. Officers there arrested more than one dozen people with suspected ties to Tren de Aragua after an apartment complex raid.
The City of Aurora itself was thrust into the spotlight in August after social media users claimedsurveillance footageshowed Tren de Aragua members taking over an apartment complex. Authorities later denied that gang members took over the complex.
However, the Aurora Police Department announced weeks later it had identified at least 10 members of the gang operating in the city.
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