Mayor: Aurora seeks court order to clear apartments of gang activity

DENVER (KDVR) — Aurora will ask for an emergency court order to clear apartment buildings where the mayor says Venezuelan gang activity has been reported.

Mayor Mike Coffman said on Friday that the City Attorney’s Office will ask to declare the properties a criminal nuisance.

“This will require a municipal judge to issue the order with the goal of getting these properties back under the control of the property owners,” Coffman said in a social media post .

FOX31 has been speaking in recent weeks with residents of multiple apartment complexes who say gang violence has been affecting their communities.

Department of Homeland Security sources confirmed to NewsNation on Friday that people seen in videos carrying guns and forcing their way into apartments in one of those buildings are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

FOX31 spoke with one of the owners of the three complexes that had a large number of migrants move in and where they say crime had become a growing problem.

That owner, who did not wish to be identified by name, responded to the news that law enforcement had confirmed that TdA was operating in isolated pockets of Aurora.

“It proves what we have been saying. It proves what we have been told by law enforcement, which has basically been staying mum on the issue. It was law enforcement that informed us it was Tren de Aragua at the properties, and then when everything broke, there was no one to speak to for many, many weeks,” the owner said.

The issues have included the Fitzsimons apartments on Nome Street, which the city shut down over code issues but which property management said was because of Venezuelan gang activity there.

Aurora police said on Friday that a man arrested in a July shooting near the complex was confirmed to be a member of TdA .

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