Aurora city lawmaker and police at odds about level of Venezuelan gang activity

AURORA | Aurora Council Member Danielle Jurinsky’s repeated, undocumented claims that a violent Venezuelan gang is overrunning Aurora made national news and has triggered a flood of social media chatter among anti-immigrant sympathizers and activists.

While police did not deny the existence of people claiming to be affiliated with foreign gang members, police said any criminal activity identified remains “isolated.”

Jurinsky asserted on a Fox News segment Wednesday that the members of the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, also known as TdA, have caused “a complete gang takeover in parts of our city.”

“It’s unreal. It’s unreal,” Jurinsky said in her on-air interview. “Residents tell me they feel they are living in a third world country at this point.”

About the alleged TdA involvement, she said, “They are going block by block, they are going apartment complex by apartment complex, they are taking it over, and I think the city doesn’t know how to handle it.”

Aurora city government attempted to temper some of Jurinsky’s assertions and alarm late Wednesday.

“We are aware that components of TdA are operating in Aurora. APD has been increasingly collecting evidence to show the gang is connected to crimes in the area,” city spokesperson Ryan Luby said in a statement. declining to make any “conclusory statements about specific incidents or provide details about law enforcement strategy and operations.”

He noted that Aurora Police, working with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, “believe reports of TdA influence in Aurora are isolated.”

Addressing Jurinsky’s claims of ongoing “takeovers,” Luby told the Sentinel late Wednesday that “individual council members are able to share their thoughts on any issue but do not speak for the city as a whole.”

Denver Police provided a similar statement earlier in the day.

They, too, said officers were unaware of any Denver apartment buildings being commanded by TdA gang members.

“There are reasons to believe that members of this gang are tied to crimes in the area,” police said in the statement. “However, DPD is not aware of any apartment buildings being ‘taken over’ by this gang in Denver.”

With the influx of some 40,000 Venezuelan migrants into metro Denver in the last two years have come claims about gang activity by certain Aurora residents and officials.

Some, for example, allegedly exaggerated the level of violence and lawlessness at a meetup of 3,000 to 4,000 migrants at an Aurora shopping center on July 28. That was Election Day in Venezuela when opposition candidate Edmundo González was expected to trounce incumbent strongman Nicolás Maduro. Maduro later declared himself the winner of another six-year term.

Some city politicians and others attributed — without evidence — the city’s move to shut down Aspen Grove, a decaying apartment complex in north Aurora earlier this month to the presence of TdA gang members.

The allegations were disputed at the time by city staffers who countered that the complex was shuttered because of years of documented code violations.

At least three council members have said they do not believe their own city staffers’ reasons for forcing tenants, many of whom are newcomers from Venezuela, out of the 98-unit building.

“None of us buy that story, that this is based on a code enforcement violation,” Jurinsky said during an Aug. 8 city council public safety committee meeting, referring to herself and council members Stepahnie Hancock and Steve Sundberg. “The three of us believe there is a huge gang problem.”

Jurinsky said that despite not having proof of claims by the building’s owner that gang members had been squatting in the building, “our opinions are not up for debate.

Aurora police have repeatedly pushed back against the claims of rogue gangs.

“I don’t think Venezuelan gangs are a big safety concern in the city of Aurora,” Chris Juul, the acting deputy police chief told the Sentinel earlier this month.

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