Venezuelan gang takes over Colorado apartment complex after police fail to address issue, owner says

The owner of an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, is blaming the local police department for the city’s recent shutdown of the location, claiming that law enforcement officials allowed Tren de Aragua, a violent Venezuelan gang, to take over the area, the Sentinel Colorado reported.

All of the tenants at the Aspen Grove Apartments will be forced to vacate the property Tuesday after the city declared it uninhabitable.

'They can’t expect these issues to be resolved by landowners.'

The owner of the property told the Sentinel Colorado that the location was shut down because the Aurora Police Department failed to curb gang activity. However, city officials are denying the owner’s claims, instead contending that the complex’s property manager is facing court action over a number of health and safety code violations. According to the city, those violations date back to 2019, before TDA was active in the area.

Photographs of the complex provided to the news outlet reportedly showed rat, mouse, and cockroach infestations, piled-up trash, and hazardous electrical and plumbing issues.

The city maintains that the shutdown is unrelated to any gang activity. It claimed that the owner is using “diversionary tactics” to deflect responsibility for years of “substantial, longstanding, unresolved code violations.”

Aurora reportedly sent a “nuisance” letter to the owner and property manager last year warning that the complex could be shut down. However, that order specifically cited the location as a criminal nuisance after the city received more than 100 calls for services from October 2022 to September 2023.

The owner argued that those calls were for law enforcement to address.

“They can’t expect these issues to be resolved by landowners,” he told Sentinel Colorado. “I told them time and time again, if you guys only took this seriously eight months ago, nine months ago, you probably could have stomped it out with relative ease.”

According to the owner, his tenants have told him they have witnessed TDA members break into vacant apartments, patrol the area with rifles, and even threaten residents to pay them rent.

Denver Police told the news outlet that “there are reasons to believe” that TDA is tied to some crimes in the area.

“Confirming gang affiliation is challenging because suspected members of this gang often give false identities during law enforcement contacts and typically do not admit membership to the gang,” the department noted.

Aurora Police did not respond to the Sentinel Colorado’s request for comment.

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