The city of Aurora, Colorado, said it would evict an apartment building occupied by members of a violent Venezuelan gang after a video of a group of people with guns went viral.
The city has deemed the gang's activity a “criminal nuisance” and given officials the power to draft emergency court-ordered evictions, Mayor Mike Coffman announced Friday.
“This requires a city judge to issue an order with the goal of returning these properties to the control of their owners.” Coffman says.called the takeover an “organized criminal operation.”
“Meanwhile, law enforcement task forces established to interdict and apprehend Venezuelan gang members within these buildings will continue to operate.”
Coffman was referring to security camera footage that has gone viral that shows a group of heavily armed men, including three with handguns and one with a rifle, entering the apartment in question and breaking into a room.
Separate footage taken at a different time shows two men in the same housing estate using a tyre iron to bang on a room lock.
The group, possibly the violent prison gang Tren de Aragua, has taken over several apartment buildings in suburban Denver, and investors say they have “lost control” of the properties.
Coffman said the gang specifically targets properties owned by out-of-state owners.
“I strongly believe the best thing we can do is close these buildings and make sure this never happens again,” the mayor said.
Several high-profile crimes have been linked to members of Tren de Aragua, including the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and the shooting deaths of two New York Police Department officers in June.
On Thursday, the mayor slammed the federal government for allowing the influx of migrants, many of whom crossed into Denver, a sanctuary city about 10 miles west of Aurora.
Coffman previously speculated that the federal government may have worked with nonprofits to house immigrants in the affected buildings, which could have attracted gangs to exploit them.
Earlier this week, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis' office denied the notion that the building had been taken over by gang members, telling The Washington Post that police information about the “alleged break-in” was largely fabricated.
