Unpacking ‘Hysteria’ Over Venezuelan Gang Members Allegedly Taking Over Colorado Apartment

Rumors that members of a gang from Venezuela commanded control of an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, generated headlines by conservative media outlets and social media commentary in late summer 2024.

The rumors began when, on Aug. 28, 2024, a local TV broadcast reporter based in Denver, Colorado, posted a video to X supposedly showing a group of men, four of whom appeared to be carrying firearms, entering an apartment in a nearby suburb, Aurora. 

The reporter’s outlet — FOX31 KDVR, which is an affiliate of the Fox network — posted an article featuring the video, describing it as showing “alleged gang violence at an apartment complex home to some migrants in Aurora.” 

According to that article, the video was taken by a security camera owned by one of the complex’s residents not long before a shootout broke out on the property.

Within the next week, however, rumors about what the video showed — or, what supposedly happened at the complex — spread online. The New York Post, for instance, claimed a criminal gang from Venezuela called Tren de Aragua had “taken over” the complex, for instance.

In reality, it’s unknown what the video actually shows, nor if it’s related to gang activity. 

Aurora police indeed believe members of the Tren de Aragua gang are operating in their jurisdiction (details below), though the department has reportedly only formally investigated one crime connected to the gang, and that incident occurred at a different apartment complex. We reached out to the Aurora Police Department asking if it received any reports about the activity depicted in the video — and, if so, if investigations into those calls included Tren de Aragua. We will update this story if we hear back.

Tren de Aragua’s US Presence

According to CNN, Tren de Aragua, which officially adopted its name in the early or mid-2010s, is known for violence and drug trafficking, as well as sex-trafficking rings across South America. Since 2023, some U.S. politicians have expressed concerns over the gang’s influence in the United States, and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration officially declared the gang a “transnational criminal organization” in July 2024. In an X post on Aug. 28, the Aurora Police Department said it believes Tren de Aragua (TdA) members are indeed operating within its jurisdiction. The post said:

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. However, as we have said previously and as the DEA similarly stated, it would be improper at this time for the city and APD to make any conclusory statements about specific incidents or provide details about law enforcement strategy and operations. 

That statement by Aurora police did not refer to the rumors about the in-question apartment complex, specifically, though it was posted the same day as the video. It emphasized that the agency had previously established a joint task force “in collaboration with other local, state and federal partners to specifically address concerns about Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) and other criminal activity affecting migrant communities.”

Arrests of Two People With Gang Ties Occurred at a Different Apartment

The apartment complex that was allegedly “taken over” by Tren de Aragua is called the Edge at Lowry, and is located on 12th Avenue and Dallas Street in Aurora. Based on satellite coverage on Google Maps, the complex contained six separate buildings.

According to the Denver Post, police have investigated just one crime in recent months that officers connected to Tren de Aragua. In that case, according to a Sept. 4, 2024, post by the Aurora police on X, four individuals were arrested and charged with attempted murder after a July 28 incident at a different apartment building located on Nome Street, the Fitzsimons Place Apartments. Two arrestees had confirmed ties to the gang, including a man named Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirino.

That ties in with other reporting from conservative outlets like the New York Post that connected Pacheco-Chirino to a separate assault at the Fitzsimons Place apartment complex. However, Pacheco-Chirino’s arrest was not connected to the alleged takeover of The Edge at Lowry.

In a Aug. 30, 2024, statement on Facebook, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said the city attorney’s office would be requesting a court order to “clear” the Edge at Lowry buildings in response to “Venezuelan gang activity,” with a goal to get “these properties back under the control of the property owners.” 

Snopes could not find any further information about the alleged court order beyond Coffman’s Facebook post, however.

What Apartment Residents are Saying

Meanwhile, tenants of the Edge at Lowry held a news conference alleging that something else — not gang activity — was affecting them. 

According to local ABC and NBC affiliates and the Denver Post, the complex’s residents, who are mostly migrants, denied the rumors about the gang takeover. Instead, they said they felt unsafe because the complex’s management company was allegedly neglecting building upkeep. 

Denver’s ABC affiliate covered what it described as “unlivable” conditions at the building in August, a week before the supposed gang-takeover came to light.

The property management company has faced similar accusations before. Fitzsimons Place, the aforementioned building on Nome Sreet, is owned by the same company, and, because of its condition, Aurora officials obtained a court order to condemn the building in early August 2024. 

In a statement to the Denver Post, the property management company said it could not maintain the buildings because of Tren de Aragua activity. 

The city of Aurora disagreed.

“The city has documented substantial, longstanding unresolved code violations and other poor conditions at (Fitzsimons Place Apartments) for the last few years,” city of Aurora spokesperson Ryan Luby told Denver’s ABC affiliate in early August 2024. “(Possible gang) activity is immaterial to and separate from the city’s code enforcement actions at the property and the building’s inhabitability.”

This back-and-forth between the city and the management company led some X users to suggest the company made up the gang-takeover rumors to avoid performing building maintenance. However, there was no concrete evidence supporting that theory.

Response to the Rumors

Local politicians including Coffman, the mayor, and City Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky spread the unsubstantiated claim that the apartment complex had been taken over by members of the Venezuelan gang.

Coffman spoke with Fox News on Aug. 29, an interview in which he claimed the video depicted an “organized criminal effort.” In that interview, he said that several buildings under “out-of-state ownership” had fallen under control of “Venezuelan gangs,” but said he was not sure if the members were affiliated with Tren de Aragua.

Later that day, Coffman and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston appeared together on the local NBC affiliate, and they attempted to assuage fears. There, Coffman said that much of the news coverage was inaccurate and exaggerated and was making things harder for the city to investigate.

‘It’s overwhelming our 911 system, or our emergency call center, and so it’s actually hurting our ability to respond to crime,’ Coffman said. ‘I would hope people would not do that. I think we’re in some sort of environment of hysteria right now over this. It’s a real issue. It’s being dealt with. It’s isolated.’

In the NBC interview, Coffman said that Aurora police had access to the surveillance video, but reaffirmed that police had not yet determined if the men in the video were affiliated with Tren de Aragua. 

A Brief Response To The Critics

When local officials and tenants spoke publicly about the supposed takeover, a common response kept surfacing on social media: that those who said the supposed apartment takeover was fake were attempting to hide the truth for one reason or another.

Any tenant who attempted to speak against the narrative of an alleged takeover could be ignored under the logic that they were either a member of the gang themselves or because they were being intimidated by the gang and were in danger if they spoke out.

For local officials, it was supposedly more of a public-relations issue, according to the skeptics. Coffman told NBC that some of his critics had been conflating gang activity with any large gathering of Venezuelan migrants.

We’ll update this report when, or if, new information comes to light.

Sources