Most wanted Colombian gang leader captured in Texas

WASHINGTON (TND) — One of the world's most wanted fugitives, and reportedly one of the top leaders of a Colombian criminal gang was captured near San Antonio, Texas, after a sweeping investigation that involves multiple law enforcement.

29-year-old Aderbis Pirela was on Interpol's top 10 Most Wanted tied to at least four murders, drug trafficking and warrants out of Bogota, Colombia.

Former Head of Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan joined The National Desk’s Jan Jeffcoat to discuss the issue.

“This just goes to the heart of one of the main issues. The reality is every time Secretary Mayorkas or anybody from this administration tells the American people that we properly vet everyone before we release them is just a lie,” he said. “They're provided a false sense of security that doesn't exist. The reality is there are many countries that illegal aliens are coming into our country from that we have zero diplomatic relationships with and we're getting nothing with respect to their criminal history.”

Law enforcement say Pirela crossed the border on January 2 and requested political asylum on January 7 from Venezuela. He was also allowed into this country and released but investigators reportedly discovered on January 27 that he and his gang members were using a migrant shelter in Texas of all places for their operations. That's when the FBI and Homeland Security began their intense search for him.

“The border tools mission has fundamentally changed from a law enforcement national security mission to one of a processing enterprise. The reality is every single day this administration is releasing people that we know nothing about and we know before we release them in the past 36 months. ICE arrested almost 200,000 illegal aliens in the United States,” Morgan said. “This is happening every single day because this administration reenacted and reinstituted catch and release.”