'Catch and release' Tren De Aragua gang member charged with murder and kidnapping

SAN ANTONIO - Law enforcement sources tell us a man now charged with capital murder and kidnapping in Bexar County is a member of the Venezuelan Tren De Aragua gang.

Law enforcement sources tell us the suspect, Eiber Gabriel Sira-Vargas, is a Venezuelan migrant who is not only a suspected member of the transnational gang Tren de Aragua but also trafficked weapons for the group. You might remember that Governor Greg Abbott called the gang the "worst of the worst" when he declared the group a foreign terrorist organization back in September.

According to law enforcement sources, Eiber Gabriel Sira-Vargas was caught illegally entering the country and was released in the US while he waited for a hearing in immigration court. He was later picked up and confined to an ICE facility.

Court records show that on November 21 an arrest warrant was issued for 29-year-old Eiber Gabriel Sira-Vargas on charges of capital murder stemming from the kidnapping and subsequent execution of 19-year-old Alexis Jose Vargas. Federal court records show a judge ordered Sira-Vargas' removal from the country on October 30, though he remains at the Bexar County Jail on bonds totaling $2 million in connection with the two charges.

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Sira-Vargas is accused of kidnapping two people, shooting them, and leaving them for dead near the Quarry. Vargas died from the shooting and his body was found in a field off Highway 281 back in July. The other gunshot victim survived, telling San Antonio Police he pretended to be dead and flagged down police once Sira-Vargas left.

Sira-Vargas was arrested in a multi-agency operation back in September and had been in custody at the South Texas ICE Processing Center on orders to be removed from the US last week.

Multiple individuals told investigators that the victim had been violently kidnapped from an area apartment complex before being transported to the field. The individuals interviewed offered Sira-Vargas as a potential suspect. At the time, Sira-Vargas was being detained at an ICE Processing Center in South Texas.

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During the initial investigation, detectives discovered an armed robbery had been reported in close proximity to the shooting. Upon interviewing the victim of that robbery, investigators received limited information. However, investigators would learn that the victim had been with Alexis Jose Vargas at the time of his death. Detectives went to interview that victim again, who was now a witness to the homicide. He was being detained at an ICE facility in Colorado, where he admitted he had misled police before his apprehension. The witness told police that he and Alexis Jose Vargas had been in an apartment where he, Vargas, and a third person, were detained by armed suspects, allegedly including Sira-Vargas.

The victim told investigators Eiber Gabriel Sira-Vargas and other suspects forced him and Alexis Jose Vargas at gunpoint into a vehicle and drove them to a field along Highway 281. They were forced out of the vehicle, and Sira-Vargas opened fire. Alexis Jose Vargas died as a result of his injuries, but the witness survived, playing dead until the suspects fled the scene.

The injured witness waived down a passing vehicle. When police responded, he told officers that he had been robbed at gunpoint, out of fear that the suspects may attempt to kill him again. The witness later identified Sira-Vargas as one of the perpetrators of the shooting.