The city of Aurora, Colorado has announced it will remove an illegal construction. Apartment building taken over by violent Venezuelan gang members The action was taken after a video of the gunman crew went viral.
The city has ruled that gang activity is a “criminal nuisance” — giving officials license to draft emergency evictions upon court order, Mayor Mike Coffman announced Friday.
“This would require a municipal judge to issue an order, the goal of which would be to return these properties back to the control of the property owners.” Kaufman saidWho had earlier called the takeover “an organised criminal effort”.
“In the meantime, the law enforcement task force set up to interdict and arrest Venezuelan gang members in these buildings will continue its operation.”
Kaufman referred to Viral surveillance footage captures a group of heavily armed men —three of whom had handguns and one a rifle — broke into an apartment complex and vandalized a unit.
Another clip taken at another time shows two men breaking the locks of a unit inside the same residential complex with a tire iron.
The gang, which is possibly the violent prison gang Tren de Aragua, has taken over several apartments in the Denver suburb, and investors say the gang has “lost control” of their properties.
Kaufman said the gang specifically targets properties that are all owned by the same out-of-state people.
“I firmly believe the best solution is to close these buildings and make sure this never happens again,” the mayor said.
Several high-profile crimes involving Murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley And the shooting deaths of two New York police officers in the Big Apple in June have been linked to members of Tren de Aragua.
On Thursday, the city's leader criticized the federal government for allowing a flood of migrants into the country. Many of them have moved to the sanctuary city of Denver, about 10 miles west of Aurora.
Kaufman had previously speculated that the federal government may have worked with nonprofit organizations to house migrants in the affected buildings — which may have attracted gangs looking to exploit migrants.
Earlier this week, Colorado Governor Jared Polis Office dismissed He said the buildings had been taken over by gang members, and told the Post that police intelligence about the “alleged invasion” was largely fabricated.
