A notorious Colorado apartment complex occupied by the violent Venezuelan gang Torren de Aragua has been ordered shut down because it poses an “imminent threat” to the public, a judge has ruled.
Owners of The Edge at Raleigh complex in Aurora closed the emergency late last week following a recent series of violent ordeals, including the brutal kidnapping and torture of an immigrant couple who lived there. An order was issued.
The city had requested the closure amid a series of troubling incidents and as authorities pursue criminal negligence charges against five Dallas partners who own the building. The Denver Post reported.
In granting the order, Judge Sean Day ruled that the 60-unit apartment complex, which is scheduled to close next month, poses an “imminent threat to public safety and welfare.”
Officials claimed in court documents that the notorious complex has become a “hub for unmitigated violent crime and property crime.”
The city says more than 60 criminal incidents, including violent assaults and armed robberies, have been linked to the complex since September 2023.
“The problem is a poorly managed space that has allowed this crime to flourish,” Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said after the closure order was issued.
It was not immediately clear how many people would have to leave the complex.
“The City is concurrently working with Arapahoe County and other community partners on a plan to provide relocation assistance to existing tenants in the 60 affected apartment units,” city officials said in a statement.
The apartment complex attracted national attention late last year when surveillance video went viral showing multiple gunmen breaking into one of the apartments.
Break-ins and shootings in and around The Edge forced several residents to evacuate and infuriated President-elect Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, nine gang members from Torren de Aragua were indicted last month after kidnapping a man and a woman who lived in the complex. Police said seven others are still being investigated in connection with the ordeal.
Police said the mixed group abducted the immigrant couple from their home in The Edge and then took them to another apartment, where they were detained, pistol-whipped and assaulted.
Police added that the couple's apartment was also burglarized during the ordeal.
“We will rest until we ensure that all those involved in this incident are in custody and all those who have abused other human beings in the same way that these victims were treated. “We're not going to do that. And we're going to use every resource again to do that.'We've been aggressively focused on that apartment complex,” the police chief said at the time.
“As everyone here knows, and the nation knows, this complex is an incredibly problematic complex. It's an incredibly crime-ridden complex. ” he added, citing multiple arrests in recent apartments after the gang took over the complex.
