County Attorney’s Office seeks to shut down condemned El Paso hotel housing Tren de Aragua gang members
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- El Paso police officers have been called out nearly 700 times over two years to investigate criminal activity at a condemned hotel in downtown El Paso.
That's just one bombshell in the County Attorney's lawsuit against the owner of the Gateway Hotel, which is on S. Stanton Street, one block west of the El Paso County Courthouse.
Other allegations include operating without proper licenses and harboring members of a dangerous Venezuelan gang known as the Tren de Aragua.
Still images from a surveillance video show people filling the hallways of the Gateway Hotel.
There are children in some of the shots. Other images show people apparently armed with knives and fighting. In some, a man is clearly bleeding in the hallway.
The county attorney said the video from which the images originated shows, quote, "The deplorable state of the inside of the building."
Another video, according to the County Attorney, shows, "people partying, drinking, smoking and dancing provocatively while children are present ... at least one gun being shot, ... men holding knives and another man with a hatchet assaulting people and causing damage to the hotel in front of a security guard."
The images are copied on a lawsuit against the Gateway Hotel and its owner, Howard Yun, which was filed on Aug. 27.
The county is seeking an injunction to stop occupancy at the hotel due to it being a public nuisance.
According to attachments in the legal filing, Yun had taken over ownership of the condemned property in 2015 and had spent years trying to bring the Trost-style building up to code.
The documents show, Yun filed for a temporary occupancy permit in 2018 but it expired within that year. And the County Attorney's Office states it could not find any records showing that Yun had filed for a new permit.
The court filing included copies of a fire code inspection from Aug. 19, and among the 20 violations, it states "building has no current certificate of occupancy."
Meaning that all the people shown in the surveillance images, and who were spotted by an ABC-7 crew who went by the hotel over the weekend, are staying or living there unlawfully.
ABC-7 attended the first hearing in the case Monday, but was unable to talk to Yun or his representation about the suit by the time this article was published.
The County Attorney listed out details of the 693 calls about illegal activity and code violations since 2022.
From heavy drug use, to thefts and burglaries, to sex offenders taking up residence in the hotel. Also, sexual assaults, stabbings and fights, and an unattended death.
Several times, police said in their reports they could not find an on-duty hotel employee.
There are some more troubling instances of criminal activity happening within the hotel's walls involving apparent migrants -- some with gang associations.
In an eight-page statement attached to the suit, one El Paso police officer said, "There should be concern due to the establishment and rise of the Venezuelan Criminal Organization 'Tren de Aragua' at the Gateway Hotel. We discovered several Venezuelans have the tattoo identifiers of Tren de Aragua."
They listed several instances of suspected Venezuelan migrants and Tren de Aragua gang members being involved in violent incidents beginning this year, as recently as Aug. 23.
As of Monday afternoon, the hearing in the 120th District ​​​​​​​Court is still ongoing. The ABC-7 crew in the courtroom reports that while the injunction has been granted, there is currently an effort to help occupants find new housing by Sept. 12.
