ICE raid in Raleigh nets Tren de Aragua gang member
General Assembly looking at release actions by Mecklenburg Sheriff
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids around the country have ramped up since President Donald Trump took office, including a recent arrest in Raleigh of a suspected Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang member.
Per a press release by ICE, 24-year-old Ricardo Padillia-Granadillo, a Venezuelan national, was taken into custody on Feb. 8 in Raleigh.
"Law enforcement officers with ICE, Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations and the U.S. Marshals Service arrested Granadillo the evening of Feb. 8 at a residence in Raleigh without incident,' the ICE press release states. "Officers found a handgun, ammunition and 10 other Venezuelan aliens in the house while conducting the arrest operation."
Reports from law enforcement sources say 10 others were also arrested but it is not clear if they are also suspected TdA members.
Granadillo entered the country illegally on Oct. 1, 2022, was paroled into the U.S. interior, and failed to show up for his court date on Sept. 12, 2024, resulting in an arrest warrant being issued.
The ICE press release's title says Granadillo was wanted in connection with a "mass shooting" in Chicago, but the release does not offer details on the shooting. However, after sifting through Chicago headlines, the incident was likely the Dec. 2, 2024 shooting on the city's south side involving eight people, three of which were killed. All of those involved were identified by Chicago's police chief as Hispanic.
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During the Biden administration, major cities across the country all became hubs of activity for TdA, including Chicago, where tensions and violence have occurred between TdA and local gangs.
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has documented the drug cartels, in particular the Sinaloa Cartel, and gangs like TdA have increased presence in Chicago over the years.
Per a November 2023 report by CWB Chicago, arrests of Venezuelan nationals in Chicago surged by 11,333% between 2021 and 2023 under the Biden administration's open borders. Arrests of Venezuelan nationals in Chicago rose exponentially, going from six arrests in 2021 to a whopping 686 in 2023.
As of last November, at least 30 members of TdA had been arrested in Chicago, with many of them released back onto the streets.
Granadillo isn't the first time ICE has apprehended a TdA gang member in North Carolina.
Last fall, Eleazer Kasshoggi Mujica-Rojas, known as "La Fresa," was arrested in Charlotte on Sept. 1, 2024. Mujica-Rojas is an alleged lieutenant of TdA and was wanted by police for illegally entering the United States in 2022.
Mujica-Rojas was evading arrest when he was finally taken into custody, but also on charges of illegal gun and ammunition trafficking, aggravated extortion, and money laundering.
Law enforcement officials in multiple states say Mujica-Rojas, as a member of TdA, has been involved in the gang's criminal activity including murder, kidnapping, human trafficking, drug trafficking, and terrorism.
But there's more, this time coming out of Charlotte where WSOCTV reporter Joe Bruno was embedded with ICE during an arrest raid of Jose Napoleon-Serrano, a twice-deported Hondurian national.
Here's why ICE was after him.
"In 2020, he was removed from the United States after being arrested in Operation Noble Guardian," Bruno reported. "That’s when investigators arrested people who crossed the border with a kid in order to be deemed a family unit so they could avoid detention. ICE says the kid would then be sent back after gaining entry into the US."
Bruno's report goes on to say that Mecklenburg Sheriff Gary McFadden's office arrested Serano "charges of assault with a deadly weapon, assault on a female, and domestic violence" in January 2025 but released him despite ICE requesting McFadden's office contact them.
"ICE issued a detainer requesting him to be held for 48 hours and for the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office to let them know before he is released. Records show he was held for 48 hours but ICE says MCSO never made that phone call," per Bruno's report. "As Channel 9 has been reporting, Sheriff Garry McFadden thinks the law doesn’t require him to do so."
McFadden took issue with the WSOCTV report, prompting Bruno to post a statement by McFadden on X claiming he is "simply following House Bill 10," which has a section that requires sheriff's to cooperate with ICE.
McFadden also claimed in his statement that ICE didn't act, therefore he released Serano after a judge gave him a mere $5,000 bond, which he posted.
"In total, Mr. Serrano was held 5 days with NO ICE movement. As laid out above, MCSO received zero correspondence from ICE after they sent the detainer on January 13th," McFadden's statement reads in part. "ICE was aware of Mr. Serrano’s status between January 12th-17th as they are privy to our various tracking systems. ICE is more than welcome to pick up the phone – we will always remain transparent about a person’s release, but nowhere in House Bill 10 does it mandate local sheriffs to notify ICE of an individual’s release."
The language in House Bill 10 is contained in Section 9.1, which does not specifically state law enforcement is required to call or contact ICE prior to a release.
However, McFadden appears to be ignoring ICE's fact sheet, which states a detainer serves as "both a request for advance notification of release and a request to hold the subject for a short period of time, enabling ICE to take custody."
In a follow-up post on X, Bruno wrote, "As I have been reporting, it boils down to this- The Sheriff doesn't believe the phone call is required. ICE says it is."
"NCGA is expected to get involved," added Bruno.
Two sources in the General Assembly's House have confirmed to me that, yes, they are aware of the McFadden situation and that action will be taken this session.
McFadden has a history of being known as a "sanctuary sheriff," in that he's repeatedly stated in the past he would not cooperate with ICE.
In 2020, ICE launched a billboard campaign in Charlotte specifically targeting McFadden by highlighting violent illegal aliens released from the county jail.
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