Tren de Aragua gang members arrested in NYC apartment next to daycare facility

A worker at the daycare center tells Fox News Digital that there were children inside the facility when the raid took place. 

The vicious gang has taken advantage of a lax southern border under the Biden-Harris administration, with many of its foot soldiers swarming the U.S. and unleashing hell on unsuspecting communities. The gang has been engaged in all sorts of violent crime, including murders, shootings of police officers, assaults, robberies and gun smuggling into migrant shelters.

The NYPD confirmed to Fox News that Valero-Calderon was one of those who was taken into custody on Dec. 5 on a federal arrest warrant. 

Valero-Calderon reported to a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in New York City in September 2022 but then went on his crime spree.

He was twice busted on larceny charges in New York and New Jersey with a conviction in June 2023. He was also arrested on a separate petty larceny conviction in Nassau County on April 24, 2023, before being arrested in Florida in February for fraud, larceny and resisting arrest, according to the Post.

Other suspected TdA members arrested in the raid, according to the Post, include Angel Gabriel Marquez Rodriguez, 19, who was arrested in Chicago last year on a shoplifting charge then four months later was busted on larceny charges in New York City and again three months later.

Jhonaiker Alexander Gil Cardozo, 24, was also arrested by the NYPD on grand larceny and stolen property charges back in July and had two other Big Apple busts in June for reckless endangerment and robbery but was left out on the streets.

News of the raids was welcomed by New York City Council Member Joe Borelli of Staten Island. 

"This is a gang that set up camp in our city, and it is beyond the pale that the Democratic Party is entrenched against having the NYPD cooperate with ICE to remove them," Borelli told Fox News Digital. "They are actively recruiting members among the migrant community and unfortunately, spend most of their time terrorizing those very same people."

"Mayor Adams should use every resource available to end the city law that precludes the NYPD from cooperating with ICE because it is specific groups like this that make me question the sanity of people who seek to protect them and ensure they remain here."

Those comments were echoed by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y. who told "Maria Bartiromo's Wall Street" that Democrats have been weakening laws to allow for illegal immigrants, gangs and criminal organizations to stay within New York and "wreak havoc."

"It's good news that we're hearing Eric Adams change tune, but quite frankly, he has the ability right now under existing law to cooperate with Ice detainer requests for people who are hardened criminals for violent offenders, for sex offenders," Malliotakas said. 

Late last month, two members of the violent gang who participated in a caught-on-camera-armed apartment invasion in Aurora, Colorado, were captured in New York City. 

Denyeer Aramillo Meneses, 23, and Edison Pena Angulo, 25, both pictured in the viral video, were nabbed in the Bronx by an NYPD gang task force and Homeland Security in a major credit card scam and drug trafficking bust.

Fox News' Christina Coulter contributed to this report.