Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agencies have arrested 36 gang members and associates and seized 69 guns. The stunning display of evidence is the biggest gun seizure in Nebraska history.
Agents also seized about $40,000 in cash and small amounts of cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and marijuana.
Among those arrested, Jesus Rocha-Cruz, who lived in a mobile home park off 63rd and Grover. Agents say he had been selling methamphetamine and illegal guns.
Rita Vaccaro describes the scene that unfolded at her neighbor’s place early Tuesday morning. “And I looked out the window, and I saw, uh oh, these policemen and somebody up against the trailer with a gun.”
She adds, “I thought, ‘Oh, I hope they don’t shoot guns, because they’ll go right through the trailer houses and could kills somebody.’”
There were no shots fired during that raid, but an arsenal of 69 firearms in total were seized throughout several locations in Omaha and one in Lincoln. They include 22 handguns, 14 assault rifles, 16 shotguns, and 17 rifles, including a Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifle.
“They’re an expensive gun, four or five thousand dollars,” says Jeff Fulton of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Fulton adds all of the weapons seized can be legally owned, typically by sportsmen. However, these guns were in illegal hands. Informants revealed the guns were headed to Mexican cartels.
But Omaha Police Chief Eric Buske points out, “This group obviously demonstrated they didn’t care where these guns were going. It didn’t matter to them. They were told they were going to Mexico. They very well could have just as easily ended up on the streets of Omaha, so it’s a big deal to get this number of guns out of a specific group’s hands.”
The Surenos are an international threat. Agents say they have been in Omaha since the mid-1990’s.
“They’ve created a lot of violent acts, not only in Omaha alone, but across the country, and in Mexico,” says Special Agent in Charge of Omaha’s ICE division.
“They’re involved in regular acts of violence involving drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, you name the criminal act and they probably have touched it in some way.”
Wallrapp adds, “There are certain cliques of this gang, I believe we’ve decimated.”
Rocha-Cruz had lived in the home where he was arrested for a few years. He even had two young children.
“It seemed like he had a lot of company,” Vaccaro says, “but I don’t know, you know if he had a lot of friends or.”
Neighbor Dan Liekhus noted, “A lot of vehicles coming and going at all times of the day and night.”
But his biggest concern was their speeding, with kids on the block. He never imagined drugs and weapons were so close-by.
“I know he didn’t work for a long time and he kind of told me he had income from his family passing on, an inheritance.”
The pieces, now falling together, those in the area say they’ll keep doing what they always do. “Us neighbors kind of keep an eye on each other,” says Leikhus.
One of the 36 arrested lived in Lincoln. The rest lived in omaha. All but five of those taken into custody are illegal immigrants. Twenty of those arrested have been indicted by a federal grand jury or criminally charged by complaint.
This is the latest joint local action of ICE’s ongoing national efforts to target transnational gang members and stop the illicit flow of U.S. weapons to Mexico.
U.S. Attorney Joe W. Stecher, District of Nebraska, says he believes the raids will prove to be a powerful blow to Surenos gang activity in Omaha. He compares it with indictments 18 months ago against MS13 gang members.
Stecher says MS13 is barely a presence now locally, and he expects the same impact on the Surenos.
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