A backer of billionaire Donald Trump stands behind a billboard on the Wyoming-Colorado border that reads: “Venezuela move forward, BE PREPARED.”
Drivers entering Colorado from Wyoming on I-25 have been confronted with the Venezuelan flag sign and warning ahead of November’s presidential election.
The billboard refers to reports from Aurora about the Tren de Aragua gang taking over buildings and committing crimes in the Denver suburb, where at least 10 Venezuelan gangsters have been arrested.
The sign also reads: “Paid for by Clipper Properties LLC, Tim Mellon, Member.”
Mellon, the heir to a banking fortune worth an estimated $14.1 billion, is one of Trump’s biggest supporters. USA today reported. His family founded Mellon Bank in the 19th century and was the leading investor in Gulf Oil.
Drivers entering Colorado from Wyoming via I-25 are confronted with the Venezuelan flag sign and warning ahead of November’s presidential election
Tim Mellon, the heir to a banking fortune worth an estimated $14.1 billion, is one of Trump’s biggest supporters. Mellon is pictured in 1981
The reclusive billionaire, 82, has donated $75 million to Trump’s campaign, and also contributed $25 million to Robert Kennedy Jr.’s failed independent bid.
He has donated a total of $227 million to political campaigns, mostly to Republicans.
Mellon, who reportedly lives in Wyoming, has been accused of racism over statements he made in his memoir, panam.captain.
He wrote in the book, “Black people, despite the heroic efforts of the ‘Establishment’ to right the wrongs of the past, became even more combative and unwilling to intervene to improve their situation.”
Mellon’s cousin John W. Warner IV previously told Vanity Fair that the Trump donor is “the most private Mellon there is.”
The controversial billboard is also backed by the former Wyoming Speaker of the House of Representatives through his Clipper Properties LLC.
Many of the arrests stem from violent activity at the properties, particularly the Whispering Pines apartments, where the landlord claims the gang took over the property late last year and started charging “rent” from tenants.
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Councilmember and Public Safety Chairwoman Danielle Jurinsky have denied that Tren de Aragua has “taken over” the city, saying there are only problems in a few properties.
“TdA has not ‘taken over’ the city,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“The exaggerated claims fueled by social media and select news organizations are simply not true. “Once again, TdA’s presence in Aurora is limited to specific properties, which the city has been working on in various ways for months.”
Focus on Tren de Aragua jumped after security camera footage emerged on social media showing a group of heavily armed men brazenly entering an Aurora apartment.
That prompted Trump to promise to “liberate Aurora” from the Venezuelans who he falsely said were “taking over the entire city.”
Police call the reports exaggerated, but nevertheless acknowledge that they are investigating ten gang members for involvement in various crimes, including a murder in July.
Aurora police have identified the Tren de Aragua gangsters arrested in connection with their reported violent takeover of several apartment complexes in the city
They include a Venezuelan who was arrested in another Denver suburb and accused of helping someone else steal a motorcycle and pointing an AR-15 at a tow truck driver who asked him to take his car move. Another was suspected of stealing designer Gucci sunglasses in Boulder and has a criminal record in multiple states, including for carjacking and vehicle abuse.
The law firm Perkins Coie was hired by the lender of Whispering Pines Apartments, 1357 Helena Street, to investigate the reported takeover and claims the gang extorted “rent” from people they moved into vacant properties.
Former U.S. Attorney T. Markus Funk wrote, “The evidence we have examined indicates that gang members engage in flagrant trespass, assault and battery, human trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, unlawful possession of firearms, extortion, and other criminal activity, often targeting on vulnerable Venezuelan and other immigrant populations.”
The report, issued in August, says that “Tren de Aragua has threatened to kill (and in some cases apparently actively attempted to kill) members of Whispering Pines management.”
The gang’s activities escalated this year, with a housekeeper claiming in April 2024 that two individuals “entered an apartment, came out with large firearms and were about to kill.” [the property manager].
Elsewhere, from the heartland to major cities like New York and Chicago, the gang has been accused of sex trafficking, drug smuggling and police shootings, as well as the exploitation of migrants.
The size of the gang and the extent to which its actions are coordinated across state lines and with leaders believed to be outside the US are unclear.