Colorado’s Aurora Reports Armed Venezuelan Gangs Taking Over Apartment Buildings

DENVER—As early as November 2023, armed Venezuelan gang members began terrorizing residents of an Aurora, Colorado, apartment building, according to a Denver law firm hired to investigate. Law firm Perkins Coie’s 10-page letter to city officials details how the Tren de Aragua gang took over the Whispering Pines Apartments using threats of murder, intimidation, and beatings. Evidence also indicates that gang members have engaged in “flagrant trespass violations,” including human trafficking, Attorney T. Markus Funk said. Other alleged crimes included extortion, unlawful firearms possession, and sexual abuse of minors, “often targeting vulnerable Venezuelan and other immigrant populations.” “The gang’s [motive] appears to be to unlawfully move gang members, as well as vulnerable immigrant families, into vacant units,” Funk wrote in the Aug. 9 letter to the mayor, city manager, and interim police chief....