Latest 'Tren de Aragua' gangster is arrested by ICE in sanctuary city (2025)

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The terrifying face of an alleged Tren de Aragua gangster was revealed on Friday after he was arrested by ICE officers in Denver, Colorado-a sanctuary city.

Joel Matos-Nieto, a 23-year-old illegal Venezuelan migrant with a face full of tattoos, has been accused by ICE of being a member of TdA, a gang whose members often have very specific ink.

According to pictures shared by ICE's Denver Field Office,Matos-Nieto was arrested on a street in Denver and was seen handcuffed next to an agent with the DEA, which often participates in ICE raids.

Since its founding in a Venezuelan prison in 2014, TdA has since become an international criminal organization that has been responsible for drug smuggling, sex trafficking and retribution murders.

Matos-Nieto wasn't accused of anything as serious as murder, but he has prior convictions for motor vehicle theft, obstructing a police officer and criminal mischief, according to ICE.

He had received a final order of removal with a deadline of April 23 and was apprehended two days later.

Matos-Nieto is currently in custody at the Denver Contract Detention Facility, a jail run by the GEO Group, a private prison contractor.

The arrest of Matos-Nieto in Denver comes after over a month after the city's mayor, Mike Johnston, was called in front of the House Oversight Committee to answer for his apparent lack of regard for immigration enforcement.

Johnston was present in March alongsideMichelle Wu of Boston, Brandon Johnson of Chicago and Eric Adams of New York.

Johnston's handling of this issue came into focus in June 2024, when the TdA members muscled their way into at least three apartment complexesin Aurora,near Denver.

At the time, Aurora police said members of the gang who came from Venezuela 'forcibly' took over.

In terrifying security camera photos, they were seen casually walking outside residents' homes with rifles in hand.

'As of now, the Aurora-Multi-Family Properties are in the complete control of the Gangs, who have refused to relinquish that control until the Gangs receive an agreement from the Owners providing for the joint operation' of the complex,' police wrote in an incident report.

DailyMail.com exclusively reported that TdA, which President Donald Trump designated as a terrorist organization, took over a fourth property in the Denver areain late January.

In early February, approximately two weeks after President Donald Trump took office, ICE agents stormed into one of the apartment buildings and arrested as many as six men.

It's unclear precisely how many migrants were rounded up as part of the targeted enforcement, however, sources told the DailyMail.com the total fell short of the 100 migrants ICE had hoped to nab.

As agents went door-to-door looking for them, several migrants climbed onto the roof of the property.

One eyewitness described one migrant as appearing as though he might jump, but that did not happen.

Video of the incident shows several men on their knees with their hands behind their backs as armed agents behind them bound their wrists with zip ties.

Since Trump took office, the federal government says it has arrested 394 TdA members.

While the gang's activity started about 10 years ago in Venezuela, its reach has expanded to the United States, where its members are suspected in the shooting of two New York City police officers and the killing of a former Venezuelan police officer in Florida.

DailyMail.com first broke the news that TdA had crossed into the USin October 2023.

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