Todd Blanche (15:07):
All right, good morning. Good morning, everybody. We are here today because eight allegedly illegal alien members of Tren de Aragua foreign terrorist organization are being charged with vicious kidnappings and murders in separate cases out of Texas and Illinois. These violent murders should never have occurred in the first place because these men should have never been allowed in our country. Instead, eight TDA members from Venezuela came here illegally, all eight, every one of them, during the Biden administration and went on to allegedly commit the heinous crimes described in the charges discussed today.
(15:56)
First, let me tell you what happened to a family outside Dallas, Texas. In 2024, four men murdered a father, and then they kidnapped his 13-year-old daughter and 12-year-old nephew. Today, right outside Dallas, we unsealed an indictment charging five alleged members of TDA with various crimes arising out of that incident I just described. Three of the four are already in custody in the United States for other crimes they had committed, and one is being held in Colombia. Also this morning in Chicago, federal and local law enforcement charged three alleged TDA members on a criminal complaint, charging the brutal murder of another victim in the Chicago area. Our United States attorneys from the Northern District of Illinois and the Northern District of Texas will give you more detail about the two incidents that I just described.
(16:55)
All eight of these individuals, the five charged in Texas and the three in Chicago, crossed our southern border illegally. Every one of them entered under the Biden administration between December 2021 and April 2024. None of these men should have been in this country. The father in Texas should be alive today. His daughter and nephew should have never been kidnapped. The young victim in Chicago should be alive. These violent crimes and murders happen because under the Biden administration, open border policies left our borders wide open, and hundreds of suspected and now convicted TDA terrorists poured through those borders into our country.
(17:46)
Now, President Trump stopped this madness on January 20th of last year. That same day, President Trump designated TDA as a foreign terrorist organization. In the 18 months since January 20th, and President Trump did that, nearly 350 members and associates of TDA have been charged and/or convicted of horrific violent crime, murders, sex trafficking, kidnappings, along with weapons, weapons charges, drug trafficking, robbery, ATM jackpotting, and other widespread financial crimes. Law enforcement in this great nation have worked overtime to find these terrorists, build these cases, and bring them to justice. TDA members who entered under the previous administration should have never set foot on our shores.
(18:41)
Much of the work that I just described today was carried out by Joint Task Force Vulcan, which we built to eradicate MS-13 and expanded to take on TDA. Also, the work has been done by our Homeland Security Task Forces, HSTF, established by President Trump to dismantle the cartels and transnational criminal organizations. This is very dangerous law enforcement work. It requires an all government, all law enforcement approach. Today I'm joined by two of our United States attorneys from Texas and Illinois, and you'll hear the details from them in a moment about the two charging instruments that I just described. You'll also hear from our FBI director, Kash Patel. I also want to thank the folks from Task Force Vulcan, our FBI agents on the ground, and our partners at Homeland Security Investigations. All their work on the ground is the reason why we're here today. So thank them for their work. I'll now turn it over to Director Patel.
Kash Patel (19:52):
Thank you, General. Thanks to President Trump's historic leadership and decision to designate Tren de Aragua as terrorists, because that's what they are. Law enforcement was given the tools for the first time to go after this vicious gang for what they are: violent, vicious gangsters. And because of that, the interagency was able to get together and go after and attack street gangs and gangs throughout America. Gangs are the reason why so many drugs, guns, and violence are deployed onto our streets and onto our community and take so many innocent lives, as the attorney general laid out.
(20:27)
The task force, Joint Task Force Vulcan, thank you to you and your leadership, not just for Tren de Aragua, but MS-13. Thank you to our United States attorneys, both in the Northern District of Texas and in the Northern District of Illinois, and a huge thank you to our partners at HSI and the Homeland Security Task Force. And for me, a special thanks to the men and women of the FBI, specifically today in the Dallas and Chicago field offices. This work is an interagency lift by a huge team that gets after it every day in combination with our state and local partners, and the results here and the details that you're about to be given will speak for themselves.
(21:02)
I just want to highlight, since President Trump took office and let good cops be cops, what law enforcement has done collectively with our brave prosecutors at the Department of Justice and our Attorney General Blanche's leadership. We've arrested 29,000 violent gang members since President Trump was sworn in. We've disrupted and dismantled 2,700 gangs around the country. That is a 365% increase from the same time period into the last prior administration. We have seen specifically, as it relates to Tren de Aragua, a 519% increase in arrest. As the attorney general laid out, you've seen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Tren de Aragua, violent gangsters, and thugs picked up and arrested and taken off our streets permanently for crimes ranging from kidnapping to murder, to drug trafficking, to firearms violence and more.
(21:54)
We are safeguarding American citizens and American communities because President Trump decided to put law enforcement first, give us the resources that we need to do our jobs and safeguard our communities, and make sure that the details that you're about to hear never happen again to another community in Dallas or Chicago or anywhere else. And that is due entirely to the leadership of President Trump and allowing the Federal Bureau of Investigation to partner with our interagency folks and our state and local partners across the country to make sure this never happens again.
(22:27)
The reach, the reach as you will hear, of the long arm of the law that is the United States Department of Justice and our partners will go wherever we find any one of these gang bangers to be hiding. We will get them anywhere in the country. We will go overseas to get them. And as you just saw last month with our successful takedown of the ATM jackpotting scheme led by Tren de Aragua, we will go overseas and get the highest ranking members of Tren de Aragua and bring them here to justice.
(22:53)
Attorney General, I just want to thank you for your brilliant leadership, your support of law enforcement and the men and women of the FBI. It's a truly great partnership. It is a historic partnership. And I want to thank President Trump for recognizing Tren de Aragua for what they are: terrorist. And that is how we are always going to treat them. Thank you.
Ryan Raybould (23:14):
Good morning, everyone. I'm Ryan Raybould, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas. I'd like to thank General Blanche for his leadership and helping empower us U.S. attorneys in the field to eradicate TDA from our communities. TDA is a transnational criminal organization that has metastasized its reach across the Western Hemisphere by preserving and promoting its power through intimidation and violence. But whenever violence enters a community, that is when freedom leaves. This is not just an abstract concept. People in our communities, including in North Texas, are impacted when the activities of gangs, particularly TDA, go unchecked. Kids cannot play in parks or walk to the ice cream shop with their grandparents. Parents go to bed at night worried that stray bullets-
Ryan Raybould (24:01):
Parents go to bed at night worried that stray bullets might hit their homes. The Trump administration has helped us return freedom back to our communities by systemically attacking and dismantling TDA, criminal enterprises, and other violent street gangs. Yesterday's indictment in the Northern District of Texas underscores the extraordinary efforts we are making in North Texas to disrupt and dismantle any TDA presence. I learned of this case because of the great work of our state and local partners, those in the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, Farmers Branch Police Department, and the Dallas Police Department. Through their efforts and prosecution of one of the TDA members earlier this year, the evidence that came to light compelled me as well as General Blanche and Director Patel to act. Let me tell you what that evidence was. On August 24th, 2024 in the middle of night, a man and two kids had their hands zip-tied and were kidnapped by TDA members who demanded that they pay them money.
(25:07)
Once the TDA members realized the man could not pay them any money, they pulled over by a bridge in Dallas and told the man to jump off. When he refused to do so and attempted to flee, a TDA member gunned him down, execution style in front of the two children. The Farmers Branch Police found the man on the side of the road abandoned and bleeding from the head because of a single gunshot right between his eyes. This led my office to initiate an international investigation of this transnational criminal organization. I immediately mobilized my Violent Crime Chief, Jeremy Fugate, to team up with Task Force Vulcan and the Homeland Security Task Force, which includes many different agencies, particularly FBI and HSI, to investigate this transnational gang at the highest levels. Yesterday was a culmination of this outstanding multi-agency collaboration to bring the full force of the federal government on TDA's presence in Texas and our nation.
(26:14)
In our federal indictment, a Northern District of Texas grand jury charged five TDA members, including a high-ranking TDA official, Hector Garcia Zuniga, also known as Murray, with racketeering charges, spanning state lines and international borders including murder, kidnapping, and jackpotting. Those defendants charged in our indictment are all foreign nationals who have illegally been present at one time or another in this country. Those defendants are as follows. Murray, who I just mentioned a moment ago, Carlos Luis Zambrano Bolivar, Yanni Jesus Serrano, Jonathan Toro Gonzalez, and Ahikar Mendoza. And let me be clear, we're just continuing to investigate and investigate, and we're going to dig deeper and deeper. And I'll end with this. To members of TDA, we're coming for you and we're particularly coming for you if you come to North Texas. With that, I'll turn it over to the US attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
Andrew S. Boutros (27:17):
Thank you very much. Good morning. My name is Andrew S. Boutros and I'm the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. It's an honor and privilege to stand here with General Blanche and all of our other law enforcement partners as we make this important announcement. A criminal complaint was filed yesterday in the Northern District of Illinois charging three individuals, Josue Pacheco Torres, Cliver Monticerno Bercino, and a third individual with kidnapping, conspiracy in committing a kidnapping that resulted in death. And let me just also describe the ruthless kidnapping and murder that occurred that is the basis of this criminal complaint. On the spring afternoon in May of this year, just less than 60 days or so ago, a victim was walking with two other men near a particular park in Chicago, which houses a large green space on the south side of Chicago with three playgrounds, a basketball court, and a baseball field.
(28:25)
The defendants captured the victim and then forced him into a car where he was initially driven to a Chicago apartment. There, the defendant and their co-conspirators bound the victim's wrists behind his back, held him against his will and kept them in there for hours. They later exited this apartment with the victim where now the victim's hands were tied behind his back. They transported the victim to an abandoned building in Chicago where he was shot multiple times in the head and in the body. The victim's lifeless body was left face down in the bathroom, partially in the bathtub in an abandoned unit. When the victim's body was recovered, it was badly beaten and there were blunt force trauma and injury to his head, his face, his arms, his neck, his hands, and his torso. The following night, the Chicago Police Department received a call from the victim's mother who requested a wellness check at the abandoned building.
(29:33)
The mother told the police that she had been directed to the building by an individual associated with the co-conspirators. Chicago police entered the building and found the victim dead inside the bathroom, shot multiple times, and again, with the victim's wrist still being bound behind his back. I want you to think about those facts for a moment. A man kidnapped from a park in Chicago in broad daylight, beaten, held against his will, taken to an abandoned building, and shot multiple times and left in the bathtub, all in the name of Tren de Aragua. And to show just how brutal and merciless this gang is, someone then went and called the victim's mother and told her where she could find her lifeless son's body. The violence that TDA has brought in Chicago did not begin this spring afternoon in May. Federal law enforcement has been investigating these murderers and these various shootings involving suspected TDAs since 2024 when the new administration came in. And make no mistake that a new dawn of crime-fighting is underway in Chicago.
(30:52)
It started in the United States in January of 2025 when President Trump was sworn into office and it also began in April of 2025 when General Blanche and General Bondi supported me to become the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. In Chicago, we are laser-focused on anti-violence work and on being serious about going after criminals who wreak havoc and violence in our community, and the numbers and the stats reflect the level of seriousness and commitment that we are bringing to bear in this particular program area that is of vital importance. These charges today are just one example of the tireless work that our federal law enforcement apparatus in Chicago is undertaking and it is literally the reflection of the fact that the Feds, all the various agencies and the US Attorney's Office, we're working day and night. We're working weekends and holidays to keep the citizens of Northern Illinois safe.
(31:58)
I couldn't be prouder of our federal prosecutors and law enforcement partners who have embraced the anti-violence initiative that I've been leading. This 4th of July weekend as we celebrate the 250th birthday of the greatest nation on earth, many families in Chicago will be able to celebrate with loved ones because the whole of federal government in Chicago is taking violent crime seriously in a way that hasn't been seen in years. The scourge of violence in Chicago has gripped Chicago for too long and now Chicago is beginning to see relief. The complaint against these three TDA members should leave no doubt that the US Attorney's Office in Chicago will vigorously pursue transnational organizations and hold their members and associates accountable for their violent criminal acts. We will continue to prioritize these investigations in particular of TDA, which very deservedly have been designated by President Trump and his administration as a terrorist organization.
(32:58)
Our shared goal is crystal clear, to disrupt and dismantle TDA and not allow it to gain a foothold in the United States or in Chicagoland, plus we want to bring to justice those who break the law, especially using violence. Thank you, General Blanche, Director Patel and all the other partners who are here for the tremendous leadership and unwavering partnership. I want to thank the FBI, HSI, ATF, DEA, and the many others who are on the front line as we work to fight the scourge of TDA and other violence. I'll also say that tomorrow, I'll be back in Chicago tonight, but in tomorrow when we have a major anti-violence announcement coming out of Chicago involving historic operation that is actually fully coming down today, and we'll be announcing the results of what we're calling a badge-less operation and the results of that tomorrow. So for those interested, stay tuned. Big news out of Chicago in the anti-violence front.
Todd Blanche (33:56):
Thank you.
Andrew S. Boutros (33:57):
Thank you.
Todd Blanche (34:00):
Just before we take questions, if you can know, we're putting some photos up from the complaint from the Chicago arrests and you can see in one of the photos that's on the screen right now, one of the alleged participants is wearing an ankle bracelet because he's out on bail in Chicago for very serious crimes. And again, there'll be more coming out about that in the coming days, but it's an example of the dangers of no cash bail and sanctuary city policies that results in things like those photos. All right. I'll take a couple of questions.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
I have two questions. I know the administration has been using terrorism charges against TDA members in other cases. Is it possible that those charges will be added in these cases?
Todd Blanche (34:45):
Yes. Oftentimes, those charges, additional charges come later in the case when we're able to supersede. And we've instructed, I've instructed, President Trump's instructed our prosecutors to wherever possible add any sort of terrorism charges to existing cases or cases that we're charging. So yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
I have a question for the FBI director, if you don't mind. Reuters is reporting that the ransom notes that were sent regarding Nancy Guthrie's disappearance are fake. Are you able to confirm that those have been determined to be fake?
Kash Patel (35:21):
I'm not going to comment on that. We are continuing to assist that investigation. We've always been in an assist role. It's a state matter being led by the state authorities. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Thank you, Mr. Attorney General. I have questions about two recent Supreme Court rulings. Let's start with yesterday, the birthright citizenship ruling. I know you guys announced yesterday you're going to ramp up efforts to combat birth tourism schemes, but Secretary Mullins said earlier today there are discussions about other options after this ruling. Can you discuss what other options are on the table after yesterday's decision?
Todd Blanche (35:54):
Well, from a Department of Justice standpoint, it's obviously focusing our prosecutors and our law enforcement partners on birthing tourism, and it's a booming industry and-
Todd Blanche (36:00):
... partners on birthing tourism and it's a booming industry and it will continue given the Supreme Court's decision yesterday. There's other things that DHS can do and the federal government can do in the visa process and the application process to try to minimize or limit the opportunity of folks coming here not to visit and not to do what they're saying they're doing on their tourist visa, but just to have a baby that can then be a US citizen. So from our standpoint, it's focusing on what is a problem. Everybody should agree that it's a violation of our laws, if your intent in coming here, if you're pregnant is to have a child to become a United States citizen because of our now laws. And so what we have to do as a Department of Justice is make sure our agents or HSI agents that we work with and the FBI are focused on stopping that. And that's what we're going to do.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
There was another ruling in the Hawaii gun case ruling that banning guns on private property is unconstitutional. There are other states that have those same laws. Is the Justice Department going to take action against any other states that have those laws currently on the books after this ruling?
Todd Blanche (37:12):
Yeah. Look, I think Maryland, California, New Jersey, New York have basically existing laws that are now unconstitutional. So the fact that the Department of Justice should have to take action is embarrassing to the attorneys generals and the leadership in those states if we do have to take action, because they now have a law that the Supreme Court has said is a violation of our constitution. So if we have to sue them, of course we will and they should be sued, but it shouldn't take this Department of Justice telling a state they're violating the Constitution when the Supreme Court told them they were yesterday. So it's not only those four states, there's a bunch of other states that have pending legislation that mirrors the Hawaii law that was just declared unconstitutional. So I expect those efforts will cease, but we'll see what those states do and if they don't immediately rectify their unconstitutional law, we'll do it for them.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Thank you, General. How have the earthquakes in Venezuela impacted any of the Tren de Aragua investigations or ongoing cases?
Todd Blanche (38:14):
I mean, it's a horrific tragedy. And I think at a time when over the past week, 10 days, a lot of the effort that we've been entering into has been to save lives and to help the communities there recover. I view that as a separate track from the work we're doing here to combat TDA, whether they're here in Columbia or Venezuela. So I don't view the tragedy as having slowed us down. It's just something that we... All of our hearts break for what happened in Venezuela and that's separate and apart from the work we're doing on the TDA folks. Go ahead,
Speaker 1 (38:52):
My question's for US Attorney Boutros. You said that you had launched a review in light of the revelations of prosecutorial misconduct that came out of your office. Can you kind of give us a sense of where that review stands? How many cases are being examined and how many cases could potentially be in jeopardy?
Andrew S. Boutros (39:11):
So I implemented a several phase remediation plan and so we've already implemented phase one, which went into effect immediately, which was prospective in nature. So future and it set out very bright line rules for federal prosecutors in my office about what they need to do in terms of turning over grand jury materials, when they turn it over and things of that nature. And it removed discretion from the prosecutors and created bright line rules so that there would be no error in judgment or otherwise. Phase two of the remediation plan is now going back to examine to see are there other errors that were committed both by the specific prosecutor who has been a topic of focus as well as other prosecutors. So that is going to actually be multiple categories. So I've already announced in one of the filings that all the grand jury presentations by this particular prosecutor will be examined going all the way back to 2007.
(40:07)
In addition to that, we are putting together a massive plan that's going to involve a review of basically all pending grand jury matters in the entire district, which will probably take us in an order of magnitude close to four figures. In addition to that, there will be an additional review of additional minutes and grand jury presentations for an additional category of prosecutors. So when this is all said and done, I will tell you that well over a thousand grand jury presentations will be reviewed in the Northern District of Illinois. It'll both be retroactive looking at what happened in some cases going all the way back almost 20 years. It'll cover everything that is happening now that's pending in court and so it is current and therefore there can be assurances and confidence that the cases that are pending are not suffering from those issues. And if they are, that they can be appropriately raised and litigated by the defendants.
(41:09)
And it will also ensure that the prosecutors who are in my office and who have been in my office have acted ethically and in accordance with the expectations of the department. So it's going to be a massive review, a comprehensive review and it is underway and it's being formulated as we speak.
Speaker 4 (41:32):
The first question, Mr. Blanche, is what is the status of TDA in the United States now? I know that the administration has killed the two leaders abroad, but I guess what is the status of the gang in the United States now?
Todd Blanche (41:46):
So we've arrested, I think, almost 350 alleged or confirmed members of TDA. There's a lot more. There's a ton of ongoing investigations. Task force, I mean, that's a big part of the work they're doing. Their focus during the first Trump administration for several years was MS-13 and now we're focused more on TDA. I think that the numbers speak for themselves, 350 of a Venezuelan gang is a pretty good start. I think that the way these cases work is you get cooperating witnesses that are arrested that tell you about other individuals and other crimes that they were part of or they know happened and those cases are then developed and charged. I thought this was a good time to update. These are important cases and heartbreaking cases, but also a nice check-in point to say that we've got 350 of them. There's a lot more that we're investigating and I think that you'll hear about more arrests in the coming months.
Speaker 4 (42:47):
Just for Director Patel, can you talk about the threat mitigation landscape for this weekend, both here in DC but also across the country?
Kash Patel (42:56):
So we have a lot of events going on. We've got the World Cup, which we're about halfway through. We have the 250 events that have already kicked off here. And what we've done under the leadership of the White House and President Trump is utilize the inner agency and our state and local partners and basically dispersed around the country and have had specifically for the FBI, our special agents in charge with respect to field offices, make sure we have security plans in place for each and every single event. You've seen what we've done at the World Cup so far and we're going to continue to do that as it relates specifically to 250 events. We're working with the interagency, Homeland Security specifically, and mostly our state and local partners where these events are taking place to ensure that Americans have a tremendous time and a safe time celebrating America's 250th.
Todd Blanche (43:38):
All right. Just one more question, go ahead.
Speaker 5 (43:40):
Yeah. So quick follow up on that one though before. Has there been any credible threats at this point in regards similar to ones that we saw with the UFC fight?
Kash Patel (43:50):
Putting the UFC fight aside, we are constantly working with the intelligence community and state and local partners to share even information that is not credible in an abundance of caution. So far to date, we have not seen and received credible information for any ongoing future threats, but we're going to continue to monitor that.
Speaker 5 (44:09):
And then for Attorney General Blanche, a few weeks ago, Governor Gavin Newsom said that he was under an investigation by the DOJ. He called this political targeting. What can you share or at least respond to what his comments were on that matter?
Todd Blanche (44:26):
I mean, the only thing I'll say about what he chose to do and what he chose to say is I'm not sure his words are in any way grounded in fact. He'd have to address that, but to the extent there's investigations that are ongoing, I will not talk about them and neither will anybody behind me or in this department, he can choose to say whatever he thinks helps him. It doesn't make it true. All right. Thank you guys.