The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office confirmed Tuesday that it had arrested four suspected international gang members following an alleged Tren de Aragua takeover of an apartment in Aurora, Colorado.
The authorities South Korea Six people were arrested this week at the Ivy Crossing Apartments. They are reportedly facing “various charges” related to drugs and vehicle theft. Four of those detained are suspected members of a violent Venezuelan gang.
“We made a plan.”
“We're watching for any violations where we can stop someone and make contact and address any issues they may have,” Arapahoe County Sheriff Tyler Brown told KDVR.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security, in cooperation with the Sheriff's Office, conducted proactive patrols around the apartment complex on August 21, resulting in the agencies seizing a stolen vehicle, ketamine, and 750 counterfeit pills.
“There was a conversation that something was happening within our jurisdiction and we put a plan in place,” Brown told the news outlet.
It is unclear at this time what connection the four men have to Tren de Aragua.
Last week, KDVR shared a video of five men with guns breaking into another apartment complex in Aurora, the Edge at Raleigh, and another video shows a man using a hammer to break the deadbolt lock on an apartment door in the same complex.
Former residents Cindy and Edward Romero warned the area had become a hub of TDA gang activity since undocumented immigrants moved into the complex. They described life in the apartments as a “nightmare” and said their car was riddled with bullet holes after a shootout last month.
Aurora City Councilman Daniel Jurinski, along with local residents, have raised the alarm about the rise in gangs in the area, blaming the rise in criminal activity on neighboring Denver's sanctuary policies, which he says are driving an influx of illegal immigrants to Aurora.
“Getting the media and other elected officials across the Denver metro area to acknowledge that this trend exists and that there's a problem has been like pulling teeth,” Jurinski recently told Fox News Digital.
Colorado's Democratic governor, Jared Polis, has argued that the TDA invasion is largely the product of Jurinski's “imagination,” The Blaze News previously reported.
“The Governor has already advised the Mayor that the state stands ready to assist local law enforcement, with assistance from the State Police and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, if necessary,” a spokesperson for the Governor recently told the New York Post. “However, police information indicates that the alleged break-in is largely the product of Daniel Jurinski's imagination.”
Local police maintain that the TDA's influence in the area is “isolated,” despite reports that the group has taken over several apartments.
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