City officials and residents say there is no Venezuelan gang “takeover” in Aurora, Colorado

Surveillance video showing what appears to be a group of Spanish-speaking armed men entering an Aurora, Colorado, apartment complex has stoked fears about people in the U.S. illegally. But city officials and apartment residents have disputed claims that a Venezuelan gang has seized control of the complex.

The video went viral on social media, with some users saying the men are part of a Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua that has "taken over" the building.

X owner Elon Musk reshared the video, which has been viewed millions of times online. Former President Donald Trump repeated claims during a Sept. 6 press conference that noncitizens "took over buildings" in Aurora.

Cindy Romero, a former resident of an Aurora building called The Edge at Lowry, took the surveillance video. She told CBS News on Aug. 30 that she had seen people engage in shootouts and carry automatic weapons in the building. But Aurora’s interim police chief, mayor and building residents say the gang has not "taken over" the apartment complex.

Some Tren de Aragua members have been arrested near an Aurora apartment building on Nome Street, an Aurora Police Department statement said. That is a different building from where the viral video was taken, but is owned by the same company.

Tren de Aragua formed in the Venezuelan state of Aragua more than a decade ago and operated out of a prison there, Reuters reported. The group established a presence in the U.S. in the past six years, federal officials told the Denverite, a news site. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said that Tren de Aragua has a presence in metropolitan Denver, but the threat it poses is "very small" compared with other criminal organizations in the region.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman initially told Fox News on Aug. 29 that the men in the video were Venezuelan gang members who pushed out the property’s manager and intimidated tenants into paying them rent. Coffman later walked back those claims.

"What I can tell you now is that the gangs are not in control of either complex," Coffman told Newsweek on Sep. 9, referring to The Edge and other Aurora buildings owned by the same company.

During a visit to the building Aug. 31, Heather Morris, Aurora’s interim police chief, said "gang members have not taken over this complex" and residents are not paying rent to gang members.

Social media claims have also circulated that the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club was on its way "to confront the Venezuelan Gangs for taking over the apartment complex to protect the citizens of Aurora Colorado," but Hells Angels rebutted those rumors and PolitiFact found the claims False. 

The Aurora Police Department has formed a task force with other law enforcement agencies to investigate Tren de Aragua and violent crime impacting migrant communities in metropolitan Denver.

"We have recently been able to tie multiple people to the TdA gang," Aurora police department spokesperson Sydney Edwards told PolitiFact in an email, using an abbreviation for the gang and referring to four people arrested in a July 28 shooting on Nome Street in Aurora.

Edwards did not respond when asked whether people videotaped at The Edge apartments were also Tren de Aragua gang members. But she sent PolitiFact a statement posted on the Aurora Police Department’s X account about the arrests.

Residents at The Edge held a press conference Sept. 3 and disputed claims that their building had been taken over by Venezuelan gang members. They said the apartment conditions, including rat infestations and bedbugs, were caused by neglect by the owners, CBZ Management. One resident displayed live mice he had caught on glue traps as an example of health and safety concerns at the building.

Screenshot from X

CBZ claimed in an August statement that it has been unable to manage multiple buildings in Aurora because Tren de Aragua has violently taken them over. The company has apartment code violations related to pests and trash disposal that date back to 2020. The Nome Street apartments were shut down in August after city officials found health and safety problems, including a lack of electricity and rodent infestations.

Staff Reporter Maria Briceño contributed to this report.