When ICE agents stormed 7500 S. South Shore Drive on October 1, Block Club Chicago rushed to frame the scene as federal overreach.
A door is tagged with “Venezula” [sic] at 7500 S. South Shore Drive in South Shore on Oct. 1, 2025. The apartment building was raided by federal agents the morning before. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Their headline painted the picture: “Residents Return to Ransacked Apartments. It Looks Like Hell.”
But their own photos told a different story.
A television perched neatly on a table with fake flowers sat untouched beneath a collapsing ceiling, water damage dripping from above.
A blind first floor resident shows his apartment unit, with heavy water damage on the ceiling and reeking of mold at 7500 S. South Shore Drive in South Shore on Oct. 1, 2025. The apartment building was raided by federal agents the morning before. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Another wall bore graffiti spelling out “Venezuela.” Mattresses and trash littered the floor.
These weren’t the scars of an ICE raid — they were the marks of a multi-story trap house run by gangs and slumlords.
And the record proves it.
On June 22, 2025, inside this very building, 31-year-old Gregori Arias was executed by alleged Venezuelan gang member Jose Coronado-Meza and two accomplices.
Prosecutors laid it out in open court.
ICE didn’t raid a random building — they hit a known gang hub with a homicide on its record.
Block Club erased that truth.
Community Voices: South Shore Knows the Truth
On Cooley x Chi, a neighborhood page, residents immediately pushed back on the media spin:
“That apartment was nasty looking before ICE. The walls tell it all.” — Mary Jones
“Hard to believe they did ceiling and wall damage — looks like months of decay and mold.” — Jehnny Ghee
“ICE did not do any of that damage. It’s been tore up for about three years.” — Latrice Riley
“Them apartments been abandoned since 2021. We trap out them hallways.” — Tyrus Walker
“When I saw how many Venezuelans were in there and how bad it was, I knew ICE was going to hit it.” — Desean Pullum
“Tren de Aragua ran that building. They killed people and ran Rainbow Beach like a business.” — Antonio J. Martin
The people who actually live near South Shore knew the truth.
While Block Club told readers federal agents wrecked apartments and zip-tied innocents, the community called it what it was: a gang trap house that had already claimed lives.
Phillips: A Murder Erased for Christmas
South Shore wasn’t the first time. Just months earlier, the same playbook had been used at 7350 S. Phillips, another multi-story building taken over by Venezuelan gangs.
On December 17, 2024, a 24-year-old man was shot in the temple inside Apartment 412. Police found his body alongside a rifle and a live round. Sources tied the killing directly to Tren de Aragua turf wars.
Days later, the city moved on the property. Television screens across Chicago lit up with images of armed CPD officers in formation — AR-15s slung, sledgehammers in hand — storming the building.
Viewers knew something serious was happening.
But by December 23, the story shifted.
WGN and others framed it as a holiday tragedy: families forced into the cold days before Christmas, children crying, rent money lost.
The homicide in Apt. 412 disappeared from the narrative.
The images of heavily armed police made it obvious what kind of threat Phillips posed.
Yet the media stripped that context and sold the sweep as cruelty.
What they never said was that Phillips was already a migrant gang murder house.
King Drive: A Dumpster Body and a Denial
Phillips wasn’t the first. A few months earlier, the same cover-up happened at 6114–6116 S. King Drive.
On Labor Day 2024, a 911 caller reported “32 Venezuelans” flashing guns in the courtyard. The alert spread fast.
Block Club Chicago responded with a denial: “No, Armed Venezuelan Migrants Did Not Take Over a Chicago Apartment Building.”
The Tribune piled on, blaming racist rumors. Then the killings began.
On November 11, 2024, prosecutors said Carlos Reinaldo Maribal-Carvajal robbed and killed Peter Sangronis-Medina inside the building, using the victim’s own gun.
Afterward, he dragged Sangronis-Medina’s body outside and dumped it in a deliberately placed dumpster.
Eight days later, on November 19, Maribal-Carvajal was ambushed inside the same building. Shot multiple times from behind, he collapsed with a handgun in his waistband.
Twenty-three-year-old Henry Brito-Dominguez admitted pulling the trigger, telling police it was revenge for Sangronis-Medina’s murder.
While under guard in the hospital, Maribal-Carvajal admitted to the killing, claiming his victim had threatened his family. He now faces charges of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and concealing a homicidal death.
CWBChicago documented the entire chain: the dumpster body, the retaliation shooting, the hospital confession. Their reporting named the suspects, tracked the evidence, and exposed the gang violence inside the building.
Block Club and the Tribune never corrected the record. They left their September denial standing while Venezuelan migrant gangs killed each other inside the very building they claimed was safe.
The Pattern: Three Buildings, One Script South Shore (7500): Migrant execution, ICE raid — media said “innocent families zip-tied.”
Phillips (7350): Apartment 412 homicide, police with AR-15s — media said “Christmas eviction tragedy.” King Drive (6116): Dumpster murder and revenge shooting — media said “no armed migrants, racist rumors.”
Every one of these addresses was a migrant gang trap house.
Every one had murders inside.
Every one was rewritten by the mainstream press to protect the narrative.
Who’s Protecting Who? — The Media’s Dangerous Lies This is not sloppy reporting. It’s systematic.
By hiding murders, erasing gang names, and framing federal raids as oppression, the press is doing more than lying — it’s endangering the public.
Neighbors are told to doubt their own eyes, to ignore 911 calls, to treat gang-run buildings as safe havens.
Meanwhile, slumlords keep cashing rent, gangs keep stacking bodies, and residents are left defenseless.
But the result is the same: Chicagoans are lied to, and people die in buildings the media swore were safe.
Final Word
South Shore. Phillips. King Drive.
Three buildings. Three murders. Three cover-ups.
They told you ICE zip-tied innocent families. They told you Christmas evictions were the only crime. They told you armed migrants in courtyards were just racist rumors.
The truth: every one of those buildings was a migrant gang trap house soaked in blood.
And Chicago isn’t the only city.
In Aurora, Colorado, residents were told the same thing: there were no gangs in migrant-run buildings, no organized crime.
Months later, the government itself admitted that Venezuelan gangs had in fact taken over apartment complexes there, using them for the same purposes as in Chicago — crime, money laundering, and violence.
When will the lies stop?
When will the outlets that endangered the public by erasing murders be held accountable?
Until then, the only guarantee is that it will happen again — and next time, it might be your block.
http://SubX.News® on-the-spot reporting
Source Note: This report is compiled from live SubXNews video, on-the-ground reporting, police scanner traffic, X crime spotter profiles (Spot News, ChitownCrimechasers-CCC , Citizen ,CWB Chicago, Cooley x Chi , Block Club, Chicago Tribune, WGN) and direct interviews conducted.
