Operation Lone Star major border busts in Texas include violent TdA prison escapee

Texas Department of Public Safety officers working through Texas’ border security mission, Operation Lone Star, continue to apprehend violent criminals at the Texas-Mexico border. Latest arrests include a confirmed Tren de Argua (TdA) gang member and prison escapee, convicted murderers and gotaways tracked several miles by K9 units.

OLS officers made a major TdA arrest in El Paso after Texas DPS Criminal Investigations Division special agents led a multiagency investigation. Working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol agents investigated they tracked a possible wanted TdA gang member, convicted murderer, rapist, and Venezuelan prison escapee staying at a hotel in El Paso.

After CID special agents encountered the suspect at the hotel, he attempted to evade capture by jumping out a second-floor window. He was apprehended and identified as Venezuelan national Alexis Ramon Perozo-Monasterio, 36, a confirmed TdA gang member.

OLS DPS CID special agents also confirmed he was a fugitive wanted by Venezuelan authorities after he escaped from prison. Perozo-Monasterio was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison for the rape and murder of a 10-year-old child.

Perozo-Monasterio also has a history of illegal reentry; in April 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers charged him with “alien inadmissibility,” OLS officers found.

El Paso has been a hub for TdA activity and human trafficking, The Center Square reported. The FBI has long warned of violent criminal activity in the state’s largest western city.

The Trump administration designed TdA, a violent gang originating from a Venezuelan prison, as a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year. It did so after a record one million Venezuelans illegally entered the country under the Biden administration and violent crime increased exponentially, The Center Square reported.

TdA members are involved in murder, kidnapping, extortion, and human and drug trafficking, with confirmed cases in roughly half of all U.S. states. That’s up from 22 states first reported by The Center Square last December.

Last November, Gov. Greg Abbott designated TdA as a foreign terrorist organization and directed Texas DPS to target and eradicate them from the state.

Hundreds of miles southeast in Webb County, OLS DPS officers captured a criminal illegal foreign national, convicted murderer and confirmed gang member from Mexico.

After conducting a traffic stop in Laredo, CID special agents and DPS troopers learned the driver, Gregorio Denova-Cantu, 51, a Mexican citizen, was in the U.S. illegally, authorities said. They also discovered he was an aggravated deported felon who illegally reentered the U.S. after he served prison time for murder, as well as a ranking member of the Hermandad de Pistoleros Latinos gang, authorities said.

He was convicted in 2004 of murder and engaging in organized crime and served 18 years in prison in Huntsville. He was then deported to Mexico in 2023, DPS said.

After this arrest, OLS officers turned him over to ICE, where he remains in custody.

In neighboring Starr County, OLS DPS brush teams working with K-9 units are still actively pursuing illegal border crossers known as gotaways. Gotaways are those who illegally enter the U.S. to intentionally evade capture and don’t make immigration claims or return to Mexico or Canada. More than two million were reported during the Biden administration, The Center Square exclusively reported.

OLS officers working with K9 Malina tracked a group of four illegal border crossers after they bailed out of a vehicle in pursuit by authorities. Malina tracked them for nearly two miles, leading her DPS handler through rugged, thick brush, assisting with their ultimate apprehension. They were turned over to Border Patrol.

Operation Lone Star’s “mission continues,” Texas DPS Lt. Chris Oliverez said when posting a video of Malina’s successful apprehension.

Outstanding Work by Texas DPS K-9 Malina! On 9-29-25, @TxDPS K-9 Malina tracked for nearly two miles through rugged, thick brush in Starr County while assisting U.S. Border Patrol in locating a group of illegal immigrants who bailed from a vehicle.K-9 Malina and her handler… pic.twitter.com/aafVtKESDh— Chris Olivarez (@LtChrisOlivarez) October 4, 2025