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Thirty alleged members and leaders of Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Venezuelan gang designated as a foreign terrorist group, were indicted in Colorado on charges including murder-for-hire, drug trafficking, and firearms offenses.
The gang has been tied to murder, extortion, kidnapping, and drug and human trafficking.
Several TdA members are accused of unlawfully entering the U.S. and introducing its gang violence to communities across America, including those in Colorado.
“These defendants include Tren de Aragua leaders, members, and associates,” U.S. Attorney for Colorado Peter McNeilly said during a press conference on Monday. “The charges include firearms trafficking, drug trafficking, and a barbaric murder for hire plot in which several of the defendants agreed to kill two people for $15,000 and return their severed heads as proof of the murders for just an extra $5,000.”
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Alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang appeared to have taken over an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado. (Edward Romero)
A nine-month investigation tied to crime at a Denver-area apartment complex led a grand jury to charge 28 people in a 39-count indictment.
Charges include firearms trafficking, using guns in drug crimes, illegal possession of firearms and drug trafficking.
Five defendants also face conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.
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“The charges tell a story of people selling guns and drugs – lots of them,” McNeilly said. “The affidavits which have been filed in this case also tell a story of a murder-for-hire plot and other crimes that the defendants were willing to commit, such as sex trafficking.
“One of the people who offered to commit murders in this case bragged to the undercover officers that the people he would use to commit those murders were the very same people that we had seen committing crimes on the news in these apartment complexes in Aurora,” he continued.
During the investigation, officers with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recovered 69 firearms, including machine guns. Authorities claim that several of the firearms have been linked to shootings, carjackings, robberies and drive-by shootings in Denver and Aurora.
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Tren de Aragua gang members have allegedly been involved in crime across the country, including El Paso, Texas. (KFOX14/El Paso County Attorney’s Office)
ATF Special Agent in Charge Brent Beavers said during the press conference that some of the firearms recovered were privately made, adding that at least one was equipped with a machine gun conversion device.
“By removing these firearms from the street, we disrupted a dangerous cycle of violence, preventing further harm to our communities and sending a clear message to criminal networks,” he said. “We are here and together at a local and federal level, and we will bring you to justice.”
In a separate indictment, Luis Fernando Uribe-Torrealba and Luis Henriquez-Charaima, both 29, face six counts including murder-for-hire, carjacking, and trafficking drugs and firearms.
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Both men were arrested by Colombian authorities in Colombia on July 30 after the U.S. issued a provisional arrest warrant based on charges in the case.
Uribe-Torrealba and Henriquez-Charaima remain in custody in Colombia pending extradition proceedings.
Of the 28 others indicted, 24 are in federal custody.
“Each one of those 69 guns represents the saving of a life. Each ounce of narcotics taken off the street represents a life saved,” Arapahoe County Sheriff Tyler Brown said. “This community has seen a 75% reduction in calls for service… That is life-changing for the people in this community.”
Surveillance video from 2023 went viral after it showed heavily armed men kicking down an apartment door in Aurora, Colorado. It purportedly showed alleged members of Tren de Aragua who had reportedly taken over apartment buildings in the city and were extorting residents for protection payments.
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The video catapulted TdA into the spotlight of the 2024 presidential campaign, with Republican nominee former President Trump vowing to “liberate Aurora” from illegal alien criminals he claimed were “taking over the whole town.”
Aurora police have called allegations that gangs had “taken over” buildings in the city an exaggeration, although they have acknowledged the presence of TdA in the community.