A shocking video shows a group of armed men storming a Colorado apartment building that was reportedly overrun by a dangerous Venezuelan prison gang.
The group of heavily armed men – including three with handguns and one with a rifle – entered the troubled housing complex in the Denver suburb of Aurora and broke into an apartment, according to the clip obtained by KDVR.
The footage was taken earlier this month, shortly before a shooting occurred at The Edge at Lowry complex in which one person was seriously injured and several cars were damaged, according to the local news channel.
In another clip, recorded at a different time, two men can be seen using a tire iron to brutally smash the lock of an apartment in the same housing complex where migrants have moved in.
Recent crimes in the building have made residents nervous.
“It’s been a nightmare and I can’t wait to get out of here,” Cindy Romero told KDVR as she moved out of the building with her husband, Edward.
The couple said the violence began when a large number of migrants moved into the building.
They used five locks from top to bottom on their apartment door as well as a door latch jammer.
“Every day when we come home we have to do this, every time we go out to take out the trash,” Cindy said, turning each lock. “Every time we go to bed at night. We have to do it this way so no one can kick the door down.”
Her car was one of the vehicles riddled with bullets after the shooting.
The Romeros had tried to move to a safer location but said they were unable to get the help they needed.
“We couldn’t get any help. We tried to turn to other places, but we were told that since it was not a dilapidated building, we would have to wait until the problem was solved. But we didn’t want to wait for that,” Edward Romero told the local broadcaster.
With the help of Aurora City Council member Danielle Jurinsky, who has been outspoken about the influx of suspected members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua into the suburb of 390,000 residents, they finally managed to pack up and leave.
“The city’s nonprofits have agreed to help the migrants who have arrived here, but no one is helping the Americans who are stuck in these housing projects,” Jurinsky told the news channel. “(And) it’s not just Americans. Other Venezuelans are also being blackmailed by this gang.”
The council member spoke to The Washington Post on Wednesday about her community suffering from the influx of Denver’s new migrant population and the resulting Tren de Aragua gang members.
“To our governor and the mayor of Denver, I will not be silenced. I refuse to play political games with you on this refugee crisis. And I will continue to raise my voice and help as many people as I can,” she said.
Denver, a sanctuary city, has welcomed the largest number of migrants per capita in the country, with more than 40,000 new arrivals since December 2022.
Aurora, just east of Denver, has itself been hit by a flood of migrants – and crimes attributed to the Tren de Aragua prison gang, which originated in the Aragua region of Venezuela.
The gang has infiltrated several states and other major cities such as New York and Chicago after entering the United States through the southern border.
Several high-profile crimes, including the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and the shooting of two NYPD police officers in the Big Apple in June, have been linked to members of the violent gang.
