A notorious Colorado apartment complex taken over by a Venezuelan gang is under siege by migrants who are now using it as a torture center.
Tren de Aragua goons assaulted a couple early Tuesday at the Edge of Lowry complex in Aurora, police said, despite claims the besieged building had been cleared.
“To see this happening again … I’m excited, yes, I’m excited,” Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlin told reporters at a news conference Tuesday.
The city’s top cop explained how a man and a woman living in the troubled complex were held against their will and “tortured” by 13 to 15 armed individuals.
“Victims were held against their will, they were essentially tied up, both the man and the woman,” the chief explained.
“They were pistol-whipped, they were beaten, they were terrorized. The fact that one person can treat another person this way is terrible.’
While the pair were being held hostage, the attackers went to the unit where the victims live and stole items from them.
Ultimately, the gangsters released the victims, who reported to 911 what happened to them just before 2 a.m.
It is unclear whether the couple were merely targeted and tortured so the gangsters could steal from them and whether they were Colorado residents or innocent Venezuelan migrants.
Aurora police raided the Edge of Lowry apartment Tuesday morning after a couple was tortured by suspected Tren de Aragua thugs
Chief Chamberlin described the criminals as 13 to 15 armed migrants, including several women, and said they were likely Venezuelans.
Chamberlin confirmed that 15 people are in custody, but no one has been charged as the victims have not yet identified their attackers.
The top cop says he cannot be sure the attackers are TdA members, but several local officers have dismissed that “laughable” claim to DailyMail.com.
“That can only be them,” a local officer told DailyMail.com. “They run Edge or Lowry.”
They added that even Aurora police officers are instructed not to respond to the properties alone and must have backup, usually several other officers, for TdA to be considered that dangerous.
Edge of Lowry is one of three apartment complexes that the brutal Venezuelan mafia has taken over in Aurora.
The gang’s exploits in a Denver suburb came to light in August when doorbell camera footage shared by residents, fellow migrants, showed several armed migrants running to a unit in Edge of Lowry to threaten residents.
As reported by DailyMail.com, the gang had control of the property by seizing vacant apartments and illegally renting them to other migrants.
Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlin said the Edge of Lowry apartments are “infested” with criminal activity, months after the department became aware that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over the apartment complex and two other properties in Aurora.
A map showing three apartment complexes in Colorado taken over by the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang
The Edge at Lowry Apartments was the second property taken over by the South American gang
Tren de Aragua gang tattoos (photo above) were part of a Department of Homeland Security bulletin recently shared with federal agents
The empty units were also used as drug and prostitution dens, where subjects paid money for sex with women and, most gruesomely, children.
They also threatened the apartment office staff who tried to establish order and evict the gang members from empty units, beating one man to a bloody pulp.
“This is a site that has been contaminated,” Chamberlain added at Tuesday’s press conference when asked about TdA’s continued presence at the Edge of Lowry apartments.
Two other nearby apartments, Whispering Pines and Aspen Grove, were also seized by the gang.
Aspen Grove has been condemned by the city and is now vacant.
City officials have maintained that the city does not have a gang problem, but as the Daily Mail reports, law enforcement believes the gang has spread beyond just the three apartment complexes in Aurora.