Aragua’s rampage across New York is spreading across the US and has been linked to a brutal robbery of a jewelry store in Colorado, in which two female store employees were pistol-whipped and received death threats.
A Venezuelan prison gang has been linked to a Denver robbery caught on camera on June 25, and the suspect, Jean Torres Roman, 21, was arrested in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and extradited to the Denver County Sheriff’s Office last week.
Roman crossed the border illegally in 2023 but was identified early last month as a member of Tren de Aragua, a Department of Homeland Security source told The Post.
Torres Roman allegedly carried out the robbery along with several others who remain at large. According to Border Report.
According to the media, the group allegedly entered the store posing as customers and launched a brutal attack on a female staff member.
Horrifying CCTV footage shows the men chasing the female employee, who tries to hide in a back room, before the men smash down the door and pistol-whip both women as they fall to the floor. KDVR reported.
According to reports, the gunmen threatened to kill one woman who was reaching for the panic button if she moved.
Eight robbers escaped with an undisclosed amount of jewelry, according to Border Report, and the value of the jewelry they took is also unknown.
Torres Roman was identified as a gang member on July 2, sources said.
He illegally crossed the southern border in El Paso, Texas, last September, according to DHS sources, who said he was not at risk of being returned, but was later released into the U.S. with a court date set.
Following his recent arrest, Torres-Roman was booked into the Denver Jail on state charges including attempted first-degree murder, attempted robbery and criminal intimidation. He is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Marshals.
In June, SWAT officers reportedly arrested several people at a motel in El Paso, including Torres-Roman, who had recently been held on immigration charges, according to Border Report.
Torres is being held in Colorado on $1 million bail, records show. He is scheduled to appear in Denver District Court on Aug. 21.
John Fabbricatore, former Denver director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told The Washington Post that the recent raids “highlight a trend of increasing criminal activity in Denver and other sanctuary areas.”
Last week, police and Homeland Security sources across the country received warnings that Venezuelan gangs were giving their members a “green light” to attack and shoot officers, referring to threats against police in Denver.
The gang’s name, which translates to “Aragua Train,” refers to the region of Venezuela where the gang comes from, and they send their members across the southern border posing as asylum seekers.
Gang members reportedly congregate in major cities across the country, including New York, Chicago, Miami and Denver, and openly recruit other immigrants to join their money laundering, gun smuggling, theft and human trafficking activities.
The Border Patrol began tracking the group last year and has arrested 70 gang members at the border. According to federal data.
Gang members have become so enthusiastic about screening procedures at the border that they have begun telling younger members not to get the group’s tattoos in order to stand out, sources told The Post.
Right now, “it’s very easy for criminals to enter the United States,” a Border Patrol source told The Post.
“They will continue to slip in undetected because we do not have any access to other countries’ criminal databases and the current administration has no power to deter these criminals,” the source said.
Federal authorities have opened more than 100 criminal investigations into the gang as it has grown its national presence. NBC News.
of The Biden administration designated Tren de Aragua last month. The group has been designated an international criminal organisation and there is a $12 million reward offered for the capture of its leaders.
Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, 19, a Venezuelan immigrant accused of shooting and killing two NYPD officers on June 3, reportedly told police he was recruited by a New York gang “coordinator” to join the group’s “extortion” moped crew.
Castro Mata also confessed that the gang smuggled guns into immigrant shelters in New York City hidden in food delivery bags.
The gang is also suspected of being behind the assault of two NYPD officers in Times Square in January.
