Four Tren de Aragua Members Plead Guilty to Bronx Double Murder. Three Entered the U.S. Through Biden’s Catch-and-Release.

• 2 lives Claretha Daniels (44) and Justin Lawless (36) — murdered on Davidson Avenue in the Bronx on May 24, 2024, in what federal prosecutors say was a Tren de Aragua territorial operation — DOJ SDNY, May 26, 2026
• 3 of 4 defendants entered the United States illegally, were encountered at the border, issued notices to appear (NTAs), and released into the interior under Biden-era catch-and-release — before traveling to the Bronx — DOJ SDNY charging documents
• 2 years from the murders on May 24, 2024 to the four guilty pleas entered before Judge Denise Cote (SDNY) on May 26, 2026 — SDNY plea agreement, May 26, 2026
• SDGT Tren de Aragua's federal designation: Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization, issued by the U.S. State Department in 2024 — U.S. State Department, 2024

On May 26, 2026, four Venezuelan nationals — all members of the Tren de Aragua gang — pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to the murders of Claretha Daniels, 44, and Justin Lawless, 36, both Bronx residents shot dead on Davidson Avenue on May 24, 2024. The defendants are Keiber Jaen Martinez, Samuel Gonzalez Castro, Eferson Morillo-Gomez, and Keineyer Ibarra-Mujica. All four entered the United States illegally.

According to DOJ charging documents, at least three of the four were encountered at the southern border, issued notices to appear before an immigration court, and released into the U.S. interior without detention — a procedure known as catch-and-release that was systematically applied during the Biden administration. They traveled to the Bronx, joined an active TdA cell, and within months were involved in a double homicide.

The guilty pleas were entered before U.S. District Judge Denise Cote (SDNY). Sentencing has not yet been scheduled. The four defendants have now admitted in federal court to killing two civilians on a Bronx street — two years after the murders and two years after the border releases that put them in that neighborhood.

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The four defendants who entered guilty pleas on May 26, 2026, in SDNY Courtroom of Judge Denise Cote:

• Keiber Jaen Martinez — Venezuelan national, entered U.S. illegally, released on NTA
• Samuel Gonzalez Castro — Venezuelan national, entered U.S. illegally, released on NTA
• Eferson Morillo-Gomez — Venezuelan national, entered U.S. illegally, released on NTA
• Keineyer Ibarra-Mujica — Venezuelan national, entered U.S. illegally

Each defendant pled guilty to charges arising from the May 24, 2024 murders. According to the DOJ press release, the plea agreements establish that the killings were carried out as part of TdA gang activity — specifically a territorial dispute on Davidson Avenue in the Bronx. Sentencing is pending; the defendants, having entered guilty pleas, stand convicted. The government will seek sentences consistent with the federal murder-related charges.

Prosecutors described the operation as TdA-directed gang business. The victims were not gang members. Claretha Daniels and Justin Lawless were Bronx civilians — residents of a neighborhood that had become contested territory for a Venezuelan transnational gang whose members had been waved through a U.S. border checkpoint approximately a year earlier.

Davidson Avenue runs through the Fordham Heights and University Heights neighborhoods of the Bronx — a densely residential corridor of mid-rise apartment buildings, bodegas, and neighborhood commerce. On the evening of May 24, 2024, Claretha Daniels and Justin Lawless were shot and killed on that street. Both were Bronx residents with no alleged gang affiliation.

According to charging documents, the four defendants carried out the shooting as part of TdA operations in the area. The gang had established a presence on Davidson Avenue and was engaged in a territorial dispute. Daniels, 44, and Lawless, 36, were caught in that operation. The NYPD investigation that followed connected the defendants to TdA and ultimately to the SDNY federal prosecution.

The fact that two civilians died in what federal prosecutors describe as an internal gang territorial action makes this case a textbook illustration of what happens when a transnational terrorist organization embeds itself in residential neighborhoods. TdA did not import its violence in secret. Its members were processed at the U.S. border, given paperwork, and sent to the interior.

“Four members of the Tren de Aragua gang pleaded guilty today to the murders of Claretha Daniels and Justin Lawless in the Bronx. All four entered the United States illegally.”

DOJ SDNY statement, May 26, 2026 — Southern District of New York

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The mechanism that placed at least three of the four defendants in the Bronx is documented in the charging papers and consistent with public reporting on Biden-era border processing: they were encountered by Customs and Border Protection at the southern border, determined to be inadmissible, issued a Notice to Appear (NTA) before an immigration court, and released into the U.S. interior pending that court date.

An NTA is not detention. It is a piece of paper. The individual is told to appear at an immigration hearing at a future date, given an address to report to, and free to travel anywhere in the United States. In practice, the overwhelming majority of NTA recipients from this period did not appear for their hearings. The immigration court backlog — over 3.7 million pending cases as of late 2024, per the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University — meant many hearings were scheduled years out.

Three of the four TdA members who murdered Claretha Daniels and Justin Lawless followed this exact pathway. They were encountered at the border. They were processed. They were released. They came to New York City — one of the country’s designated sanctuary jurisdictions — where local law enforcement is prohibited by city policy from coordinating with ICE on civil immigration enforcement. They joined a TdA cell in the Bronx. They killed two people.

The Biden administration’s Justice Department, under Attorney General Merrick Garland (D), oversaw the DOJ prosecutorial apparatus during the period the defendants entered the country. The catch-and-release policy that released them was an executive-branch immigration enforcement choice — not a statutory requirement. It was a decision.

Tren de Aragua originated in Tocoron Prison in Aragua state, Venezuela — a facility the gang effectively controlled from the inside. It grew into one of Venezuela’s most powerful criminal organizations, operating extortion, human trafficking, and drug distribution networks across South America. As Venezuela’s economic collapse accelerated under Nicolás Maduro, TdA members traveled the same migration routes as the broader Venezuelan diaspora — through Colombia, the Darién Gap, Central America, and Mexico to the U.S. border.

In 2024, the U.S. State Department designated Tren de Aragua as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) organization — placing it in the same legal category as entities subject to counterterrorism asset freezes and enforcement authorities. The designation was a formal acknowledgment that TdA was no longer a South American street gang operating at a distance; it was an active presence inside the United States.

Law enforcement agencies across multiple states had documented TdA activity by late 2023: hotel robbery crews in Texas and Georgia, sex trafficking networks in Virginia, extortion operations targeting Venezuelan migrant communities in New York City. The Bronx became one of TdA’s active operational areas — a city with a large Venezuelan migrant population, sanctuary city protections, and no coordinated federal-local immigration enforcement.

The Davidson Avenue murders were, according to federal prosecutors, TdA gang business. Two civilians died in a territorial dispute between Venezuelan criminals who had been processed and released by the U.S. government the prior year.

The guilty pleas close the prosecution phase on the four defendants. They do not close the accountability questions about the system that enabled the crime.

At the city level, Mayor Eric Adams (D)has maintained New York City’s sanctuary city policy — Executive Order 41 and related local laws prohibit NYPD and city agencies from sharing information with ICE on civil immigration enforcement. Adams has said he supports those protections while simultaneously claiming to be “tough on crime.” The two positions are in direct tension: when federal immigration authorities cannot coordinate with local law enforcement, the interior enforcement mechanism that might have flagged known TdA members before they killed anyone is broken by design.

At the borough level, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark (D)has jurisdiction over Bronx street crime, though this case was prosecuted federally in SDNY rather than in Bronx state court — reflecting both the gang’s federal terrorism designation and the federal immigration nexus.

At the federal level, the catch-and-release releases that brought three of the four defendants to New York were a policy choice by the Biden administration. The NTA program was not a statutory requirement. It was an enforcement discretion decision — a choice to release rather than detain inadmissible migrants. That choice put Keiber Jaen Martinez, Samuel Gonzalez Castro, and Eferson Morillo-Gomez on Davidson Avenue on May 24, 2024.

Claretha Daniels and Justin Lawless are dead because of a sequence of institutional decisions, each made by officials who will face no criminal accountability for their role in that chain. The four men who pulled the triggers have pled guilty. The officials who built the system that handed them their entry have not.

Two years is how long it took — from murders to guilty pleas. In those two years, the federal government changed hands, the SDGT designation was issued, and SDNY prosecutors built the case that produced these convictions. The convictions are real. The accountability for the policy decisions that preceded them is still outstanding.

Claretha Daniels was 44. Justin Lawless was 36. They were Bronx residents who had nothing to do with the TdA territorial dispute that took their lives. Their names are in the title of this case. They should not be lost in the policy argument — even as the policy argument is the point.

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