Aurora Residents Terrorized by Tren de Aragua Gang for Months, Police Announce Charges

Aurora Residents Terrorized by Tren de Aragua Gang for Months, Police Announce Charges

WPBN: After a violent home invasion, kidnapping, and robbery in Aurora, Colorado, in December, nine suspected members of the deadly Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) were accused.

Claims that the Venezuelan gang had taken over the apartment complex earlier this year garnered extensive national media coverage.

Nine people were arrested Monday in the armed house invasion and kidnapping that left two victims critically hurt, according to the Aurora, Colorado Police Department.

The following were the names of the nine suspects:

NameAge
Andres Alexander Liendo-Padilla26
Javier Alexander Alvarado Parada24
Jesus Alberto Alejos Escalona22
Junior Reyes-Barrios28
Barbara Sivle Medina-Arcaya29
Donarkys Teresa Suarez-Quesada31
Luigi Javier Soto-Sucre26
Niefred Jose Serpa-Acosta20
Jengrinso Elias Loreto-Petit26

Second-degree kidnapping, first-degree assault, aggravated robbery, second-degree burglary, extortion, and menacing are among the offenses the accused are facing, according to the department.

Police said Serpa-Acosta was previously wanted on an active felony warrant for menacing with a deadly weapon and first-degree burglary.

The reason for his warrant was that on August 18, 2024, ten minutes prior to a deadly shooting, Serpa-Acosta and five other armed men were seen on security footage knocking on apartment doors at The Edge at Lowry.

The agency reported that they have arrest warrants for three other suspects who are still at large in addition to the charges mentioned above. After a brutal ordeal on December 17, 2024, at around 2:30 a.m., the accused gang members were charged.

The victims were hospitalized after the gang members allegedly broke into a couple’s unit at the Edge at Lowry Apartments in the Denver suburbs and bound, stabbed, and stabbed them. The victims’ valuables was also purportedly taken by the criminals.

Aurora Residents Terrorized by Tren de Aragua Gang for Months, Police Announce Charges

Initially, 19 people were detained in relation to the abduction, which the authorities had previously characterized as “tortuous.”

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According to authorities, three individuals were later freed when investigators interviewed them and found they had no involvement in the crime.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was holding the other 16 suspects. According to authorities, the other seven uncharged suspects were still being investigated and were being held by ICE.

“I will say without question, in my opinion, that this is TdA activity. Some of these individuals have been identified as TdA gang members,” Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain stated. “It’s something that we are working very close with our partners in HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] and DHS [Homeland Security] to establish their relationship with gangs.”

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Chamberlain stated that because gang members usually do not publicly declare their affiliation, authorities have limited means of verifying that a person is a member of TdA.

“It is a real challenge to try to say, ‘Hey, 100%, you are a gang member,'” he stated. “But when you look at the circumstances of this, when you look at the events of this, when you look at the individuals involved in this, when you look at the veracity and the violence involved in this, again, it is not a big step for me to say that they are TdA gang members,” he stated.

This was not a unique instance, Chamberlain said. He said that the pair had been routinely mistreated by TdA members and their affiliates, who were also extorting them for $500 every two weeks. He thinks the gang members were intimidating and extorting other people in addition to the couple.

The abduction on December 17, 2024, is still being investigated. Contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720.913.STOP (7867) if you have any information. The potential prize for tipsters is up to $2,000, and they can stay anonymous.

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Melissa Sarris is a dedicated local news reporter for the West Palm Beach News. She focuses on accuracy and public interest when she covers neighborhood stories, breaking news, and changes in local government. Melissa likes to explore new places and help out at neighborhood events when she's free.