TEXAS DPS: Tren de Aragua Gang Member Arrested for Recruiting at Houston Middle School

HOUSTON, Texas — Texas Department of Public Safety troopers arrested a Venezuelan migrant for allegedly recruiting middle school students into the violent Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang.

Texas DPS troopers arrested 32-year-old Jorgenys Robertson Cova in Houston on October 7, Fox 26 Houston reported. The arrest of the Venezuelan migrant who entered the U.S. illegally during the Biden-Harris administration sent shockwaves through the southwest Houston community of Sharpstown. Cova is suspected of recruiting middle school students for the Tren de Aragua gang.

Fox 26 interviewed local residents, who said:

Residents of the Sharpstown community, where the schools are located, expressed concern over the growing threat. Janice, a local resident, remarked, “A lot of things have happened that are on the news, so if it’s happening elsewhere it might also be happening in our neighborhoods as well, and we’re unaware of it.” The community’s sense of safety has been rattled by the news as they call for increased police and authority intervention to prevent an escalation to “a serious situation,” Janice noted.

“I think it’s bad for the neighborhood and for the community and I think the police department and authorities need to do something about it before we get to a serious situation,” another neighbor said.

The arrest of the suspected TdA gang recruiter is part of a crackdown on the Venezuelan prison gang ordered by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. During an exclusive interview with Breitbart Texas in late September, Governor Abbott said he is making all available tools available to law enforcement to take action against the violent TdA gang.

Governor Abbott recently designated the Venezuelan prison gang as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, unleashing additional law enforcement tools to be employed against TdA gang members.

As part of the State’s crackdown on TdA gang members, Governor Abbott posted a reward of $5,000 for “any information that leads to the identification and arrest of known or suspected members of this gang who have been or are involved in heinous crimes. Texas will not let these thugs use our state as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens.”

“Our goal is to make sure we find them, identify them, locate them, arrest them, and lock them up,” Abbott stated during the Friday interview.