Sixteen Suspected Tren de Aragua Members Arrested in Brutal Kidnapping in Aurora, Colorado

FAIR Take | December 2024
Last week, a Venezuelan couple was the victim of a brutal home invasion and kidnapping that took place at the very same apartment complex that has suffered from Tren de Aragua gang activity over the past year. Shortly after reporting the crime, nineteen suspects were detained by police. Sixteen of the suspects have been identified by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as illegal aliens and are believed to be members of Tren de Aragua (TdA), the notorious Venezuelan gang. Eight of the suspects are now in ICE custody; three were released.
The details of the attack are horrifying. According to Aurora Police Department (APD) Chief Todd Chamberlain, a group of armed men broke into the victims’ apartment at The Edge at Lowry apartment complex, kidnapped them, and moved them to another apartment in the same complex. The couple was then threatened, bound, and brutally beaten, with the male sustaining a stab wound. While the victims were being tortured, several of the perpetrators looted the victims’ apartment and stole valuable items. Having miraculously being released by their captors early Tuesday morning, the victims called police to their apartment, where the harrowing incident began.
By any measure, the crime was meant to instill fear in everyone residing at the apartment complex. According to police, the couple was targeted because the wife took video of a fight in the complex, which a friend subsequently posted online. That video happened to capture images of several other individuals suspected of criminal activity.
In a press conference following the arrests, Chief Chamberlain expressed frustration with the uptick in migrant crime in Aurora and said that while identifying gang members is not a precise science, he believed the recent incident was “without question” Tren de Aragua gang activity. During his remarks, Chamberlain also complained that when Tren de Aragua gang activity had erupted in Aurora earlier this year, he reached out to the Biden-Harris administration, but was told the administration’s main concern was ushering migrants across the border and that it has no real plan to support states and local communities dealing with the influx of illegal aliens. Chamberlain continued to say that the federal government’s immigration policy was a “huge problem” that left states to “pick up the pieces.”
Aurora, Colorado became a flashpoint for TdA’s violent operations this year after the gang took over several apartment complexes through savage attacks, threats, and extortion. Earlier this year, footage from an Aurora apartment complex captured a break-in where masked men wielding rifles – allegedly members of TdA – kicked down doors and entered a resident’s apartment. In October, an Aurora landlord confirmed that the gang had taken over several properties and noted that one of its employees was savagely beaten after refusing to let TdA members take over a vacant apartment. One local resident, Cindy Romero, who was forced out of her apartment due to the gang’s violence, angrily stated, “I feel like it’s a slap in the face. How many gangs is OK to have in Aurora? How many properties is OK to take over? How many people, who are citizens paying their bills, is it OK to displace?”
Tren de Aragua is believed to have been founded more than a decade ago in the Venezuelan state of Aragua, specifically in its Tocoron prison used to house the country’s most hardened criminals. From that prison, the gang expanded throughout South American countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico, and gained notoriety for its violence. Some reports put the gang’s total membership at as many as 5,000, with yearly profits of $10-15 million.
Now, the gang is taking advantage of our open borders to set up shop in the United States. A DHS memorandum leaked in November revealed that the notorious gang is believed to be operating in Washington, D.C., Virginia, Montana, Wyoming, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin—states holding half of the country’s population. In December, reports revealed that TdA has also spread its influence to North Dakota after a suspected gang member allegedly stole $24,000 in an ATM hacking operation and to Utah following a violent assault and shooting in Salt Lake City.
The incoming Trump administration has pledged to prioritize the removal of criminal aliens, and TdA members should be among the first targets. Along with fulfilling that promise, the new administration and 119th Congress must work together to immediately roll back the failed policies of the Biden-Harris administration—policies that have allowed record numbers of dangerous criminal aliens to enter the country and terrorize Americans.
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