Drugs and Death Threats: Venezuelan Gangs in Colorado

Is Latin American-style gangsterism taking hold in the U.S.? There are troubling signs, Collin Pruett wrote in The American Conservative. When I visited the Texas-Mexico border last year, I found a “population under siege, overstretched police” and Mexican cartels smuggling migrants and drugs with impunity.

And the problem appears to be spreading. In April, a Montana tribal leader canceled plans to testify before Congress, citing death threats from the Sinaloa cartel. And in the past two weeks, reports have emerged of a Venezuelan gang taking control of an apartment complex in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, Colorado. “The brazen nature of the takeover, common in Latin America but unprecedented in the U.S., alarmed locals.” Videos from residents showed men storming into apartments armed with semi-automatic weapons. There have been reports of violent attacks, murder threats, extortion and child prostitution.