US Marshals-Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force conduct Operation Washout: Space City

HOUSTON - From Sept. 8–19, 2025, Operation Wash Out: Space City Takedown was conducted in and around the Houston area by the U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force, Southern District of Texas, and task force partners.

During this multi-agency violent crime initiative, investigations and arrests were related to crimes consisting of Murder, Aggravated Kidnapping, Robbery, Aggravated Assaults — Deadly Weapons, Narcotics, Weapons Violations (Felon in Possession of Firearms), Sexual Assaults, Fail to Register Sex Offenders as well as Immigrations Violations. Several of these investigations have been presented federally by the AFT, DEA and HIS.

Agencies from all over the Houston-area participated in the operation. They include: U.S. Marshals Service; FBI; Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Homeland Security Investigations; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; U.S. Border Patrol; U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas; Houston Police Department; Harris County Sheriff's Office; Harris County District Attorney's Office; Harris County Constable's Office PCT 1, 2 and 5;

Texas Department of Public Safety and Galveston County Constable's Office PCT 1.

Number of arrests during Operation Washout: Space City

By the numbers:

• 232 total arrests
• 320 warrants cleared
• 32 gang members arrested
• 93 firearms seized
• 3,595 kilograms of narcotics seized
• $68,903 U.S. currency seized
• 6 vehicles seized

While conducting a search warrant at a residence in Southeast Houston, the agencies were able to seize a variety of narcotics and guns.

They seized more than 70,000 THC vape cartridges, more than 30,000 THC edible products, and 15 pounds of marijuana packaged for distribution. They also found 11 firearms, fully automatic and manipulated.

FOX 26's Leslie DelasBour's 10–12 hour day riding along with the U.S. Marshals on September 17

Timeline:

The ride-along day occurred September 17th around 6 a.m. in NE Harris Co. We were able to listen in during the staging to discuss how the arrest of a 21-year-old was going to go. The 21-year-old had a warrant out of New Mexico for sexual exploitation of a minor, and he was out on $40,000 bond in Harris County for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge. 

We witnessed the staging and how deputies assigned roles and a plan for how the operation to arrest the fugitive would go,

We also witnessed how the team worked together to contact family members, through traffic stops to obtain information about the fugitive. First, deputies stopped the fugitive's sister not far from her home, which was listed as an address for the fugitive. The Marshals then obtained consent to search the sister's home from her during the traffic stop, to ensure the brother was not there. Precinct 1 Constables were present and even used one of the marked vehicles as an emergency transport should something happen to one of the Marshals.  

"We conducted an interview, the relative is stating he is not in the residence. She's consenting to a search, so we are going to verify the suspect is not at the residence. We also developed a secondary address," said Joe Ruiz de Chavez, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshals. 

The secondary address is where the fugitives' brother and mother lived. After doing surveillance, once the brother left the secondary address, there was a traffic stop conducted to obtain more information about the fugitive's whereabouts, along with getting in contact with the fugitive's mom, who ultimately helped the fugitive turn himself in peacefully to police. 

The second arrest of the day was also in Harris County, near Huffman, Texas. 

U.S. Marshals arrested a man who was wanted out of Arkansas for kidnapping his children. 

"We have only been working on this one for two days. We got collateral in from Arkansas with information that we had two missing children and the dad was a fugitive, so it’s a combination of both," said Damien Terry, Deputy U.S. Marshal. 

Through surveillance, Marshals were able to track the whereabouts of the wanted father. After staging nearby the residence of the fugitive, the Marshals then followed him to his home and he was apprehended, but not without a struggle. 

"The suspect is tied to or associated with a sovereign citizen group which they don’t recognize the federal government, so that is something that – look a lot of those guys are armed. They don’t recognize the authority of the federal government," said Ruiz de Chavez. "Emotions run high in these types of cases, but also for children. The children were visibly shaken. The suspect, we followed him into the community and our plan was to – one he pulled into the driveway, were able to contain his vehicle in the driveway, activate our lights and sirens, but the suspect refused to open the door. He wasn’t showing his hands, so our personnel breached the window to gain access to him and there was a brief struggle. Once we had him on the ground, he wouldn't present his wrists, so we had to use a little bit of leverage to pull his arms out." 

As the father was being detained, the US Marshals worked to simultaneously safely retrieve the children. One was in the car with the father during the takedown and the other was inside the home visibly shaken up. Huffman PD was also on site helping during this arrest. 

"Let's not forget the jurisdiction Huffman because I think they brought a K-9 to the location and obviously, their marked units helped us transport the arrestees so like yourself, some of yourselves, with local jurisdiction taskforce, it's really," said T. Michael O'Connor, U.S. Marshal, Southerns District of Texas. 

Lastly, during the afternoon, we made our way down to Southwest Houston, where we met with a large team of law enforcement that included local, state and federal agencies all working to combat crime in that area. 

One of the teams involved was the HPD's Crime Suppression Team at the South Gessner Patrol station. 

"This operation we call it a washout – washout is typically a fast-paced 2 to 4 week operation where we target gang violence in known gang areas. This actual operation is called Space City Take Over 2025 for this year, so basically we are targeting known hot spot areas where there is a high crime or probability of crime," said Ruben Gonzalez, Deputy US Marshall. "So there is a 2 to 3 from part of it basically we start off with known violent gang members with open warrants so we go out locate them and apprehend them the other component is a proactive element we go out to these known areas show the community we are outside, and we have conversations with these gentlemen we find that utilizing this approach we execute the warrants in the morning which points allows targets to be apprehended, and then we do the proactive side of things which allows for us to be out there when they are not expecting us to be there so then it goes back and forth because the criminals do not want to go out to the street because they know we are out there so then they go home so we execute those warrants the next day, and we find more people together."

During the second part of the day, in Southwest Houston, we witnessed multiple drug transactions and traffic violations, which then led to searches, evading arrests and more. One suspect who was later taken into custody included a man who drove into a bayou while evading arrest. 

"While our teams were conducting – saturating a high crime area in the Houston area, one of the Houston PD officers spotted the vehicle that was used in an armed robbery that occurred early this morning. The armed robbery was in a bank, so once we had several of our units positioned, they initiated a traffic stop. The vehicle fled and this is where it came to rest, said Joe Ruiz de Chavez. The suspect drove into the bayou. He flipped the vehicle and ran into the residential area. We had a Houston helicopter guiding our personnel to his location, and we were able to take him into custody without further incident.

Why you should care:

During the 10 to 12 hours spent with the U.S. Marshals, we were able to see not only the hard work they put in, but also how important collaboration with local, state and federal partners are to help with these operations. 

T. Michael Connor, U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Texas, says not only the collaboration but the funding to make this operation happen from the federal level is key, because it helps bring in other agencies to make it successful. 

"Well, we bring in officers from all over. So, Marshals come from all over the U.S. because we have funding to bring them in and support them as far as the local jurisdiction supports them with extra pay to be part of a special team or task force as far as I'm concerned id like us to be predictably unpredictable, and these funds allow us to do that at any time we see merited and of course talking to the chief of police, the sheriffs," said O'Connor. 

Overall, the operation was successful and the commitment to reducing crime in and around Houston was evident.  

The work does not stop here, and Marshals say they need the community's help to make the place we call home safer. 

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