Knife-wielding Tren de Aragua gang members are mobbing border crossings at El Paso, Texas, in an attempt to break into the US — and have said they will attack border guards who try to stop them, according to a shocking Texas law enforcement memo leaked to The Post.
Last week, 20 of the Venezuelan gangbangers — armed with blades, tire irons and broken liquor bottles — tried to force their way into the US at a border gate, the missive from the Texas Department of Public Safety read.
Another attempt to break through is expected on New Year’s Day, the memo warned.
The brutal prison gang is becoming increasingly desperate to salt more members into the US before President-elect Donald Trump takes over, said Victor Avila, a retired agent for Homeland Security Investigations.
“You’re seeing that violence at the border because they know that it’s going to change in 27 days. It’s going to change. It’s going to be different, and they’re going to be sought after,” he told The Post.
Texas authorities were alerted to the gangbangers’ attempts to force their way into the US by an anonymous informant, who said the violent border break-ins by the gang “would continue every night” around 3 a.m.
The tipster said the gang intends to “cause harm” to the Texas National Guard soldiers who are stationed there — “especially when they are left alone with no agents” to help them.
A Texas law enforcement source told The Post that “gunfire has picked up big time” along the El Paso border in recent days, adding that authorities have also had to fire more pepperballs at groups trying to breach the border.
DPS didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The renewed violence is centered just a few miles down the border wall from where The Post witnessed a violent El Paso border riot on March 21.
In that assault, more than 200 illegal migrants broke through razor wire and dashed to the wall. Some of them brutally assaulted Texas National Guard soldiers in the melee.
At least one of the rioters was seen stomping on a service member’s knee as the group tried to break through.
El Paso is a headquarters for Tren de Aragua, with many members passing through the border town before heading out for other areas of the country, including New York City and Aurora, Colorado.
Avila, the retired DHS agent, said the gang has “teamed up” with cartels on the Mexican side of the border to conduct smuggling operations.
The latest warning of the gang’s increased violence is linked to anti-American ideology that Avila compared to that of terrorist groups.
“I think that TdA is coming in with an instruction from their home country. And I think that their ideology is more of a terrorist ideology of destruction,” said Avila.
“They hate the United States just like terrorists do and they will kill, destroy, take over businesses, take over stores and take over apartment complexes, do whatever they have to do to destroy our way of life in the US,” he added.
In September, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared TdA a foreign terrorist organization and revealed that more than 100 of the rioters witnessed by The Post in March were believed to be members of the Venezuelan gang.
The state also deployed additional state law enforcement resources to tackle the gang’s growing presence in the Lone Star State.
Abbott also instituted a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence for TdA smugglers moving migrants into Texas.
“Texas is aggressively going after these foreign terrorist organizations of TdA,” the governor declared at the time.
“Our goal among law enforcement in the state of Texas is to defend our state from the growing threat of TdA. We are not going to allow them to use Texas as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens,” he fumed.
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