Prosecutors Drop Only Criminal Cases from Hays County Airbnb Raid

In the early hours of April state and federal police raided a party at an Airbnb in a wealthy Austin suburb arresting nearly people including nine children The participating agencies the Federal Bureau of Probe FBI Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE the Texas Department of Populace Safety DPS and the Hays County Sheriff s Office claimed they d busted a gathering of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua but offered no substantiating evidence ICE arrested of the individuals on charges of attempted illegal entry but federal court records suggest none of the charges were prosecuted as arrestees were entirely funneled into civil detention and in a great number of cases deported The only state criminal charges to effect from the raid according to prosecutors at the Hays County District Attorney s Office were two felony drug possession cases against Venezuelan men who were stopped while driving near the Airbnb earlier in the evening Now the Hays DA has dropped both drug charges citing a lack of cooperation from federal law enforcement Marc Ranc a Hays County assistant criminal district attorney recounted the Texas Observer he dropped the cases last month because ICE would not confirm whether or not they had additional evidence for the cases I didn t get any of what I thought should have been given to me by the feds Ranc declared They never communicated with me Nothing Ranc announced an investigator in his office required ICE for evidence like video footage or episode reports but never got a reply Ranc didn t believe he could prosecute the drug charges and comply with Texas discovery laws Both defendants have now been deported Everyone whom ICE arrested was revealed to be illegally present in the U S and taken into ICE custody pending immigration proceedings an ICE spokesperson narrated the Observer The agency revealed the raid was an FBI-led operation and referred the Observer s questions to the FBI and DPS DPS declined to comment an FBI auto-reply indicated the agency would not respond until the federal shutdown ended Advocates say the Hays County raid is an example of police accusing Venezuelans without evidence of gang ties under the Trump administration All the evidence we have seen suggests that this had nothing to do with gang enforcement no one was arrested on any charge remotely related to gang activity disclosed Andrew Situation supervising counsel at LatinoJustice in a written announcement It appears that DPS completely raided this house because the people throwing a party were Latinos from another country The two men who faced the state drug charges were Antonio Vizcaino Gonz lez and Jeankey Jhonayker Castro Bravo Vizcaino Gonz lez was a tourist in a car stopped by DPS for ignoring a stop sign ICE agents then arrived and discovered narcotics in his inner waistband He was charged with ketamine possession but bonded out into ICE custody and being a dual Venezuelan-Spanish citizen was deported to Spain in May We are hardworking people nobody at the party was a criminal Vizcaino Gonz lez advised the Observer We were just immigrants trying to get ahead and celebrating a friend s birthday Castro Bravo a -year-old barber from Caracas stated the Observer he was stopped while driving for DoorDash in the area and was unaware of the party though police say he had left the party location After he established a Venezuelan passport a DPS trooper called in ICE DPS accused him in an arrest assessment of Tren de Aragua affiliation because of his tattoos and he was arrested for drug possession Castro Bravo was held in jail primarily in Haskell County for six months before the felony ketamine episode against him was dropped in October Castro Bravo also denies any gang affiliation State police cited the drugs identified on Vizcaino Gonz lez and Castro Bravo in the probable cause affidavit for the warrant to raid the Airbnb Castro Bravo explained the Observer that he was deported back to Venezuela two weeks ago His mom greeted him outside the family house in tears Back home Castro Bravo is happy His friends visit and he s eating arepas a food he missed in jail He hopes to open a barbershop again soon As for his time in Texas spent far away from family and economically struggling prior to his arrest Castro Bravo disclosed I don t want to remember this experience The post Prosecutors Drop Only Criminal Cases from Hays County Airbnb Raid appeared first on The Texas Observer