Six men have been arrested in connection to a violent Venezuelan gang’s take over several apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado.

The arrests come after after videos of armed men breaking into an apartment complex in the city went viral. The filmed burglars have been linked to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang notorious for trafficking and extorting migrants. It’s unclear whether the detained men are those pictured in the video.

Aurora’s Mayor Mike Cauffman told The Denver Gazette Aurora had “lost control” of Tren de Aragua, but claims the city is working “aggressively” to get it back. The Aurora Police Department says it is “collecting evidence to show [the gang is] operating in the area.” It established a Tren de Aragua task force with the Colorado State Patrol and Colorado Bureau of Investigation in August.

Despite state agencies’ involvement in rounding up the gang, Colorado officials refuse to acknowledge its presence — let alone how the state and federal immigration policies may have contributed to the problem.

Mike Johnston, the mayor of neighboring Denver, told Fox 31 Tren de Aragua’s takeover is unique to Aurora — despite his city housing more new migrants per capita since 2022 than any other city in the nation.

A spokesperson for Governor Jared Polis told The New York Post the state would offer Aurora help if needed, but that “police intelligence” indicated “this purported invasion is largely a feature of [some city councilmembers’] imagination.”

But Tren de Aragua’s growing presence isn’t imaginary — and it isn’t isolated to Aurora.

The gang is proliferating in and around popular sanctuary cities, sheltered by polices and practices allowing members to commit multiple offenses without getting caught.

Americans and migrants alike are suffering the consequences.

Immigration enforcement too often feels like an abstract policy issue or only a problem for states on the border. It is not.

The evidence presented below shows that a brutal gang with a passionate hatred for women is taking advantage our nation’s lax enforcement of immigration laws. Consequently, this gang has victimized Americans and American immigrants all over the country.

Christians can mitigate this high human cost by voting and by encouraging law enforcement to enforce laws already on the books.

Tren de Aragua controls at least three complexes in Aurora after reportedly scaring apartment management and staff away. Another property controlled by the gang has since been shut down for code violations. An investor in the condemned property told The New York Post the gang prevented the improvements needed to keep the building open.

Gang members went after vacant units, according to the investor, which it began renting to migrants it planned to extort. John Fabbricatore, a former Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field director, says gang members are also threatening residents.

“The gangs are making people turn over their keys to them,” the Gazette quotes Fabricattore. “They want access to their units because they need places to hop into and hide their guns and dope when police show up.”

One couple living in a compromised building installed five different locks and a steel bar on their door. “We have to keep it like this so that nobody can kick in the door,” Cindy Romero explained to local news.

The Romeros moved out of the complex with help from Aurora City Counselor Danielle Jurinsky. An outspoken advocate for people “trapped” in besieged apartment complexes, Jurinsky expressed disappointment in Governor Polis’ skeptical response.

“Is this also a figment of the Romeros’ imagination?” Jurinsky retorted in an interview with Fox. “And the other resident that I helped to get out of there, and the other residents that I’m going to continue to get out of there?”

Tren de Aragua, or “Aragua Train,” began as a prison gang in Aragua, Venezuela. The group expanded into human trafficking in 2014, when millions of people fled the country amid economic and political turmoil.

The Venezuelan exodus allowed Tren de Aragua to grow internationally. Now, Robert Almonte, a former U.S. marshal in El Paso, Texas, says the gang controls much of the migration from Venezuela to the United States.

Tren de Aragua distinguishes itself for its brutality. Victor Revoredo, and intelligence director for the Peruvian National Police, described the gang as “another level of cruelty” to Reuters.

When members began wreaking havoc in New York earlier this year, the Post wrote:

The gang makes money by roping women and girls into sex trafficking. It levies exorbitant smuggling fees and other bogus money-making schemes to push them into debt bondage, forcing them into prostitution when they can’t pay their debts.

The U.S. officially recognized Tren de Aragua as a transnational criminal organization in July, acknowledging the “escalating threat it poses to American communities.” The U.S. Treasury’s press release reads, in part:

All three of the Aurora complexes known to be under the gang’s control housed Venezuelan migrants, multiple sources report.

Like Polis and Johnston, some legacy media outlets have minimized the Tren de Aragua’s foothold in the U.S. On July 11, Reuters wrote:

A quick Google search proves this conclusion premature — if not entirely false.

Cook County police began tracking Tren de Aragua’s presence in Chicago as early as October 2023, but evidence of the gang’s organization cropped up in New York in February.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) ordered the state’s National Guard to check incoming migrants for Tren de Aragua tattoos on Valentine’s Day, after connecting the gang to a series of cellphone robberies by men on mopeds and an attack on two police officers.

Nine days later, Georgia police arrested Jose Ibarra for the murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley. Authorities believe Ibarra and his two brothers, who all entered the U.S. illegally, are members of Tren de Aragua.

In July, four members of Tren de Aragua robbed a jewelry store in Denver, where they allegedly pistol-whipped and threatened to kill two female employees.

Aside from Tren de Aragua’s preference for sanctuary cities, NYPD intelligence indicates the gang has been instructing members to claim asylum to access the U.S. Once inside, members unquestionably benefit from lax enforcement of immigration laws.

Consider Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirino, one of the suspected architects of the Aurora takeover.

Customs and Border Protection(CBP) agents sent him to await immigration trial in New York after he came to the U.S. illegally in 2022. In June 2023, he landed states away — in an ICE office in Colorado — where he was given a court date and released.

Five months later, Pacheco-Chirino and a couple other Tren de Aragua members almost killed a man at the condemned apartment complex in Aurora, breaking the victim’s nose and upper jaw and giving him a concussion.

He was arrested for and charged with the beating in March 2024, but he made bail and skipped his appointed court date.

Pacheco-Chirino ended up back in jail in July after shooting up the same complex. A judge has ordered the gangbanger be deported, but the Post writes its unlikely to occur. Venezuela and the U.S. don’t share an extradition treaty.

Yohenry Brito also went to New York after crossing the border illegally in May 2023. He had two pending theft charges when police arrested him for assaulting two officers in February 2024. The Tren de Aragua member Brito made bail before being re-arrested for robbing a Macy’s.

With a stern warning from the judge, Brito was released a third time. He proceeded to rob a Sephora — twice. As of August 12, Brito is being held on bond.

A judge released Jean Franco Torres-Roman from police custody in Chicago one month before he participated in an armed robbery of the jewelry store in Denver. He had been arrested for unlawful use of a weapon.

His compatriot, Oswaldo Lozada-Solis, had been previously arrested for reckless endangerment in New York. He was supposed to be in Atlanta awaiting immigration trial with an ankle monitor, which he had severed only 200 days after entering America illegally in 2022.

Jose Ibarra was arrested twice before allegedly murdering Laken Riley. He was wanted for skipping his shoplifting trial when Georgia police arrested him for the nursing student’s death.

America and its sanctuary cities have made themselves attractive places to commit crimes. Tren de Aragua has every incentive to establish a foothold in here. Cities like Denver, New York and Chicago can help discourage transnational gang activity by cooperating with ICE and prosecuting misdemeanors like theft. Until then, takeovers like the one in Aurora will continue to happen — and everyday citizens will be up a creek without a paddle.

For more information about the human cost of illegal immigration and lax immigration enforcement, check out the articles below.

Additional Articles and Resources

Illegal Immigrant Arrested in the Murder of Maryland Mom

Debate Over Immigration Labels Obscures Seriousness of Laken Riley’s Death

Illegal Immigrant to Appear in Court for Death of Texas Teen, Illustrates Violent Trend

Fentanyl Overdoses Rise, Connection to Illegal Immigration

Talking to Your Kids About Illegal Immigration

Familial DNA Testing on the Southern Border Shouldn’t Have Ended

The Border Crisis and the Deafening Silence of Women’s Groups