More than a dozen gangbangers likely linked to the vicious Tren de Aragua syndicate are in custody for allegedly kidnapping and torturing victims in an infamous Colorado apartment complex, cops said.
Fourteen suspects were nabbed in what Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain called “without a question a gang incident” at The Edge at Lowry complex — which has been overrun by members of the violent Venezuelan prison gang.
The group, a mix of men and women, ripped a migrant couple from their home at The Edge — then took them to another apartment where they were bound, pistol-whipped and beaten, cops said.
The couple’s apartment was also burglarized, cops said.
The victims called 911 around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday — after lying to their captors that they wouldn’t tell police they agreed to let them go. One of them was stabbed but the injury is not life-threatening.
At a press conference Tuesday, Chamberlain said investigators have not ruled out TdA’s possible involvement.
He said the department is working with Homeland Security officials to track down additional suspects, but said it’s “incredibly hard” to identify TdA members because they lack “specific identifiers.”
“We are not going to rest until we verify every individual in this incident is in custody, every individual who mistreated another human being the way these victims were treated is in custody and we will use again every resource at our ability to do that. We have proactively been focused on that apartment complex,” said Chamberlain.
“As everybody here knows and as the nation knows this complex is an incredibly problematic complex. It’s an incredibly crime-riddled complex,” he added, citing multiple recent arrests at the apartments following TdA’s takeover of the complex.
Cops went both to interview the victims and “locked down” the complex after Monday’s kidnapping, said Chamberlain.
The apartment complex became the subject of the national spotlight after surveillance footage surfaced showing multiple armed gangbangers forcing their way into a unit.
The break-ins and shootings in and around The Edge forced several residents to flee.
“It’s been a nightmare and I can’t wait to get out of here,” Cindy Romero told KDVR as she moved out of the building with her husband, Edward.
The couple saw the problem begin when the influx of migrants moved in and they placed five locks as well as a security bar jammer on their door to feel safe in their home. Their car was also riddled with bullets after a shootout at the complex.
“Every day when we come home, we have to do this every time we go outside to take out the garbage,” Cindy said, turning each lock. “Every time we go to bed at night. We have to keep like this so that nobody can kick in the door.”
Thanks to the help of Aurora City Council member Danielle Jurinsky, the couple was able to pack up and leave for safety.
Jurinsky, who has been outspoken about TdA’s takeover of multiple apartment complexes in Aurora, told The Post that the latest crimes at The Edge showcase what she’s been warning of for months with TdA’s rise in the Denver suburb.
At one point, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis chalked up Jurinsky’s claims about TdA’s takeover to merely “imagination.”
“It will come as no shock to me when they are confirmed Tren de Aragua gang members. This is what I have been saying for months now,” said Jurinsky, referring to the most recent busts.
“This is the very complex that I went in and moved the Romeros out of, I saw these people for myself.”
Jessica Montenegro and her young family were also forced to flee the complex. Montenegro previously told The Post they “were scared to stay” and knew the violence was only going to “get worse.”
Many of the new arrivals came from nearby Denver, a sanctuary city that received 40,000 migrants over the last two years.
Chamberlain slammed the Biden administration for bringing crime to Aurora, recalling a previous conversation he had with a White House official who told him that they only cared about the migrants when they’re crossing the border
“To me that’s a problem, that’s a huge problem because we have individuals that come to a country, they get dropped off into a community, they have absolutely no infrastructure, they have absolutely no support, they have absolutely no guidance from the federal government about what to do how to live, how to survive and this is the ramifications of that activity this is the ramifications of not monitoring what’s occurring, how it’s occurring and who is it occurring to,” said Chamberlain.
“And so, Aurora, we are now in the process as many other cities throughout this nation of trying to pick up the pieces of an incredibly bad system that was in place.”