DHS arrests 3 at suspected NYC migrant squatter house live on camera
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents arrested three people Wednesday afternoon at a New York City house that has been at the center of a squatting, drugs and guns story involving migrants.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were also at the scene to help with the arrests, which were captured live on "America Reports."
Documents viewed by Fox News Digital reveal that the landlord moved to evict tenants from the building in October after their lease term ended on Oct. 13. The lease does not name the tenants.
Federal agents showed up at the house in the Bronx where six suspected migrant squatters, who were arrested on drugs and weapons charges last week, were understood to be living. The Hull Street Avenue house is across the street from a school.
The six had been set loose by a New York City judge on no-cash bail, despite prosecutors requesting they post bail as high as $150,000 cash for one migrant who had previously been arrested and charged with attempted murder.
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It is unclear if the three people taken into DHS custody were also arrested last week.
In total, eight migrants were arrested in last week's incident and were all charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a controlled substance, and acting in a manner injurious to a child, police said. A 7-year-old child was found living with the group.
Of the eight, six were let go and two have been held on cash bail.
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The New York Police Department released photos of four guns, ammunition and bags of cocaine and ketamine that they found after officers were called last Wednesday to a multi-dwelling house for reports of a person with a gun.
Police said that when they arrived on the scene, they saw Hector Desousa-Villalta, 24, of Venezuela, pointing a gun outside the premises. The officers chased and tackled Desousa-Villalta as another man, Javier Alborno, 22, also of Venezuela, tried to flee the scene with a handgun tucked under his arm, but officers cuffed him.
Police confiscated the weapons.
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Desousa-Villalta was said to have had a 9 mm CZ pistol with one live round in the chamber and 13 live rounds in the magazine, while Alborno was allegedly in possession of a 9 mm Springfield Armory pistol with one round in the chamber and 24 live rounds inside the magazine.
Police said they also found a 9 mm Smith and Weston pistol with 10 live rounds in the magazine next to it, while a .40-caliber "ghost gun" pistol with 10 live rounds inside the magazine was found in an orange book bag. Two additional magazines that each had the capacity to hold 25 live rounds were also confiscated.
A Bronx judge released Desousa-Villalta on no-cash bail supervised release, even though the Bronx District Attorney’s Office told Fox News it requested his bail be set at $150,000 cash or $450,000 bond. He was previously arrested in an attempted murder incident in August 2023, when he is alleged to have shot a fellow migrant in the leg during an argument over a woman in Yonkers.
Alborno is being held after his bail was set at $100,000 cash – prosecutors had called for it to be set at $150,000.
Also being held is 31-year-old Miquel Vaamondes-Barrios after his bail was set at $25,000. He is wanted for retail theft and shoplifting in both New York and Pennsylvania, according to police.
It is unclear why Barrios and Alborno were being held while the remaining migrants were let go on no-cash bail.
The remaining migrants released with no-cash bail included one woman, 20-year-old Yoessy Pino Castillo, as well as Yerbin Lozado-Munoz, 25, Yojairo Martinez, 42, Jefferson Orlando Abreau, 39, and Johan Cardenas Silva, 35.
It is unclear if the migrants are still living in the basement of the premises. All eight are reportedly accused of possessing the drugs with the intent to sell them.
On Wednesday, Desousa-Villalta was seen by Fox News driving a gray Dodge SUV with blacked-out windows into the driveway of the home on Wednesday.
He ran into the home and then reappeared as a woman in the back seat could be seen banging on the window and telling him to get into the SUV.
Video from the house on Tuesday showed bags of trash, a chair, a mattress and other items strewn across the backyard of the property. There was also an inflatable pool partly filled with water and a moped at the side of the house. A wheelchair could also be seen on the front porch.
Fox News' Bryan Llenas and Jennifer Johnson contributed to this report.