Tren de Aragua gang member was arrested and released 4 times before Aurora violence

The drug-wearing Torren de Aragua gang member had been arrested and released at least four times before going on a rampage through the Denver suburbs of Aurora, Colorado, but now he faces brutal new charges. are.

Neifred Serpa-Acosta, 20, had previously been caught on camera breaking into an apartment with other gang members, but authorities said ICE inexplicably arrested him in July. Just weeks after he was released despite a deportation order, a viral attack occurred that ended in a fatal shooting.

This week, he was indicted along with eight other members of a violent Venezuelan prison gang for kidnapping and torturing a couple at an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, in December. ABC7 Denver reported.

Acosta finally emerged when officers searching for a suspect in the case spotted him walking past as a woman wearing a wig and a women's knit cap.

of Gang members face various charges These include second-degree kidnapping, first-degree assault, aggravated robbery, second-degree robbery, extortion and menacing.

Three of the suspects are still under investigation.

Authorities' failure to stop Mr. Acosta began in December 2022, when he was arrested after illegally crossing the border into El Paso, Texas, known as the center of Torren de Aragua.

Although he agreed to be deported to Mexico, he was not actually deported and was instead allowed to be free in the United States.

His next encounter with police was in June 2023, when he was arrested on suspicion of theft in the Denver suburb of Lakewood.

He was released, but was arrested a second time in Fort Collins in April 2024 and released again.

ICE took him into custody after he was arrested a third time on charges of resisting a police officer, obstructing law enforcement, and theft at another location in suburban Denver.

The newspaper previously reported that he admitted to being a member of the Tren de Aragua gang, which terrorizes New York City and is found in at least 18 states, and flaunted his tattoos to prove it. This was reported by an enforcement official.

A judge ordered him to be deported, but ICE released him instead, but did not respond to questions about why.

ICE did not respond to another request for comment Tuesday.

A month after he was cleared for release by federal authorities, he was arrested by a group of gang associates, along with five other men, one of whom had a rifle, in an apartment building at The Edge at Raleigh. He was captured on video rushing into a room.

The footage has become a national symbol of the devastation of Torren de Aragua in Aurora.

Minutes later, the group allegedly fired the fatal shots. According to CBS Denver.

And last month, Acosta and a group of gang associates abducted a couple from an apartment in The Edge, forced them into a nearby unit in the same complex, tied them up and pistol-whipped them, police said. announced. .

During the kidnapping, some of the gang members returned to the couple's home and robbed it.

The couple was eventually released by their captors after they promised not to call the police.

A judge then ordered The Edge apartment complex to be shut down, saying it posed an “imminent threat” to the public following a recent spate of violence.

Acosta is back in ICE custody in Denver.