AURORA, Colo. — Aurora’s chief of police on Friday renewed calls for undocumented immigrants to report crime as he revealed that the 16 suspected Tren de Aragua members taken into custody earlier this week were involved in a “complex” extortion scheme at the troubled apartment complex.
During a news conference Friday, Chief of Police Todd Chamberlain again applauded the courage of the Venezuelan couple who reported the crime after they were violently kidnapped and assaulted for hours at the Edge of Lowry apartments on Dallas St.
“Had it not been for the courage of them to come forward, we never would have known about that. And what else we wouldn’t have known about is what’s unfolding as this investigation is continuing to unfold,” he said.
Describing new details in the investigation as a “complex” extortion scheme, Chamberlain said the suspects would knock on the couple’s door and demand $500 every two weeks — on top of the rent the Venezuelan couple was already paying their current landlord.
“It seems to be something that occurred not only to these individuals, but what we are trying to do in the course of this investigation is determine if it’s occurring to many other people inside that complex,” Chamberlain said.
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The chief said finding out whether that’s happening to other tenants at the complex was hard because many of the residents at the Edge of Lowry apartments are undocumented and fear deportation if they speak to police.
“The one thing that I want to assure everybody who lives in that apartment complex, everybody in the city of Aurora who is documented or undocumented: We are here to serve you,” the chief said. “The Aurora Police Department will go out of its way to make sure that you are not victimized, to make sure that you are not mistreated, to make sure that you are not harmed.”
A video of a fight leads to a kidnapping
Since the arrests of the 16 suspects — some of which are “without question, 100%” members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), according to Chamberlain — investigators have learned the victims in this crime were targeted after they recorded a fight between two women in front of the apartment complex on Nov. 30, which was later shared by a friend of the couple on social media.
Chamberlain said the couple’s friend who shared the video “immediately became threatened” by the suspects and was forced to flee the state.
Shortly after that person left, the Venezuelan couple was then targeted, leading to the events that occurred on Dec. 16, in which the couple was “bound, threatened and assaulted” by more than a dozen people armed with rifles and handguns, who also reportedly forced the couple to provide them with their banking information, according to Chamberlain.
“The whole goal of this seemed to be based on the fact that these suspects wanted the camera or the cell phone that was used by our victim to take this video,” Chamberlain said. “They wanted that video removed, because again, it showed not only the two females fighting, but it also showed a number of other individuals in and around that apartment complex that were involved in criminal activity.”
In all, Chamberlain said police officers detained 19 suspects in six different apartments at the complex during the hourslong operation. Three were later released after police determined they had nothing to do with the crime. The remaining 16 suspects are in federal custody and are being investigated for their ties to the Tren de Aragua gang.
Inside the apartment where police found most of the suspects, Chamberlain said officers found a wall that was torn away in which several weapons were found to be attached, including several handguns as well as magazines.
Aurora Police Department
The chief also revealed that one the suspects arrested early Wednesday was one of the men seen in a viral video that catapulted Aurora into the national spotlight over claims that the Venezuelan prison gang had “taken over” the complex earlier this year.
Chamberlain said the reason he was not taken into custody earlier was because the suspect was wearing a women’s wig and hat at the time of the incident, which helped him elude authorities.
Aurora police pursuing charges against 11 suspected Tren de Aragua members
At least 11 of the 16 suspected Tren de Aragua members arrested by Aurora police in connection with the armed home invasion and kidnapping are facing several charges, including second-degree kidnapping, aggravated robbery, first-degree assault, extortion and burglary — all of which are felonies. Eight of those suspects are currently in ICE custody, Chamberlain said.
The eight suspects were identified by Aurora police later Friday as:
- Andres Alexander Liendo-Padilla, 25
- Jesus Alberto Alejos Escalona, 22
- Junior Reyes-Barrios, 28
- Barbara Sivle Medina-Arcaya, 29
- Donarkys Teresa Suarez-Quesada, 31
- Luigi Javier Soto-Sucre, 26
- Niefred Jose Serpa-Acosta, 20
- Jengrinso Elias Loreto-Petit, 26
Serpa-Acosta was already wanted on an active felony warrant for burglary and menacing, according to police. The warrant stemmed from the viral Aug. 18 incident captured on surveillance video, in which Serpa-Acosta and five other armed men were seen knocking on apartment doors at the Edge of Lowry apartments roughly 10 minutes before 25-year-old Oswaldo Jose Dabion Araujo was shot at the complex. He later died from his injuries.
With Serpa-Acosta’s capture on Tuesday, four of the six suspects from the Aug. 18 incident are now in custody, police said, but whether more will be arrested anytime soon remains to be seen.
“Unless they do an overt act, unless they self-identify, unless there’s specifically information or some type of thing that tells us these are TdA gang members, that has been the struggle all along,” Chamberlain said, adding that Tren de Aragua members could be anywhere, not just at the Edge of Lowry apartments.
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Chamberlain said Aurora police was working with the National Network for Safer Communities to see how they can identify who could be at risk of becoming a gang member so law enforcement could break the cycle of an individual joining a gang.
“One thing we are not going to do is fall into the arena of moral panic where we say, ‘just because you were there or you were here, that you are now a TdA gang member. It cannot happen that way,” he said, as he once again vowed to protect the people of Aurora, documented or not.
The immigration process, he said, is “not what the role of our department is. That’s not what the role of municipal law enforcement is. Our role is to serve,” Chamberlain said, speaking to the immigrant community of Aurora. “If you are getting victimized, if you’re getting mistreated, this uniform — this badge, on anybody — is there to serve you, it’s there to protect you. And that is a message that I hope resonates throughout that community and with all immigrant communities.”
The investigation into the kidnapping and assault is active and ongoing, police said. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Tipsters can remain anonymous and could be eligible for a reward of up to $2,000.
