Suspected member of violent Venezuelan gang is arrested in Miami on gun charge
A suspected member of a violent Venezuelan gang, which has been condemned by the Trump administration in its sweeping crackdown on immigration, faced the charge of possessing a firearm as an illegal alien in Miami federal court on Monday.
Luis Ernesto Veliz Riera, 23, a Venezuelan who authorities believe is a member of Tren de Aragua, entered the United States in February 2023 after appearing for an appointment at the Mexico-El Paso border that he had booked online through an immigration program during the Biden administration.
Before President Donald Trump shut it down on his first day in office, Jan. 20, the online system allowed undocumented aliens to submit information and schedule appointments at eight southwest U.S. border ports of entry.
On the day he entered, Customs and Border Protection gave Veliz Riera a notice to appear for a hearing before an immigration judge in Las Vegas, Nevada, as part of the CBP One Application program. But according to a Homeland Security Investigations criminal affidavit, Veliz Riera skipped his immigration hearing and stayed in El Paso, waiting for his girlfriend, a Venezuelan, to cross from Mexico into the United States in spring 2023.
The couple traveled together from El Paso to Chicago, then to New York City and finally to Homestead, according to the affidavit. On April 30, 2024, an immigration judge ordered that Veliz Riera be removed from the United States after he failed to appear in immigration court or report to authorities.
In mid-October, as part of an investigation into suspected Tren de Aragua criminal activity, Homestead police stopped a car that Veliz Riera was driving. Records showed that Veliz Riera was wanted on two outstanding arrest warrants related to burglary and retail theft in Illinois and that he was in the country illegally.
Kept loaded gun in Homestead hotel room: feds
Police soon discovered that, despite his illegal status, Veliz Riera kept a Taurus, PT609 Pro 9mm, semi-automatic handgun with a 30-round magazine inside the Homestead hotel room he shared with his girlfriend, according to the affidavit. He had loaded the firearm, police said.
On Oct. 17, 2024, police arrested Veliz Riera based on the state warrants out of Illinois. A month later, he was placed in an immigration detention facility in Miami-Dade County, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials released him into the community on electronic monitoring — an ICE policy that was not uncommon during the Biden administration.
On Feb. 3, two weeks after Trump was sworn in as president, federal authorities arrested Veliz Riera to reexamine their prior decision to release him from immigration detention — an increasingly common policy under the Trump administration.
Eleven days later, on Valentine’s Day, federal prosecutors charged Veliz Riera with one count of possessing a firearm as an illegal alien — a relatively low-level felony that has been made a priority by Trump’s Justice Department. During his initial appearance in Miami federal court on Monday, Veliz Riera, represented by court-appointed lawyer Omar Antonio Lopez, agreed to remain in custody at the Federal Detention Center in Miami before trial.
Homestead, Miami and Sweetwater police departments, along with the Broward Sheriff’s Office and other federal agencies, assisted in the investigation.
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 4:43 PM.
