Two Venezuelan nationals with alleged ties to the Tren de Aragua gang were arrested in connection with a December mass shooting in Chicago Lawn, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ricardo Granadillo Padilla and Edward Martinez Cermeno are accused of opening fire at a birthday party at a home in the 3500 block of West 59th Street on Dec. 2, 2024.
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WATCH HEREPadilla, 25, and Cermento, 24, were identified as the shooters who killed three men and injured five others, ICE said in a news release.
That day witnesses told investigators that after leaving a club in the 2500 block of South Kedzie Avenue, the group wanted to “continue the party” and relocated to the house on 59th Street where a popular Venezuelan DJ was performing, Chicago police said.
Witnesses told police they were having a birthday party when a fight erupted in the hallway of the basement, and “moments later, multiple gunshots were heard,” according to a police report obtained by the Sun-Times.
Four men and four women between the ages of 20 and 35 were injured. Three of the men died.
They were identified as Jon Carlos Blancarcer, 28, Hector Sajo, 26, and Osmer Angel Ferrer Oria, 23, police said.
ICE agents arrested Padilla Feb. 8 in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is in federal custody after being sentenced in March for illegally entering the United States in 2022 near El Paso, Texas. Multiple guns, high-capacity magazines, drugs and fraudulent documents were seized in January from Padilla’s home in Chicago, ICE said.
Cermeno was arrested Jan. 26 in suburban Schaumburg, ICE said. He is in federal custody facing charges for illegally entering the United States in 2023 near Eagle Pass, Texas.
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SIGN UP Sixteen other gang members and associates of the shooters in the Chicago area and Raleigh, North Carolina, were arrested by ICE agents on immigration charges, ICE said.
