Mayor Mike Coffman (R), the mayor of Aurora, Colorado, joined Fox News on Thursday to discuss reports of a violent Venezuelan gang taking over apartment complexes in his city, which the local police department has said they can’t confirm as of yet.
“Mayor thank you very much for coming on with us. It seems it’s tough to even get some confirmation of the details of what is going on there. First off, can you confirm whether or not this gang has taken over these buildings there in Aurora?” asked anchor Sandra Smith.
“So there are several buildings that are actually under the same ownership, out of state ownership, that have fallen to these Venezuelan gangs,” Coffman replied, adding:
I’m trying to walk it back and the and do the investigation as to how there’s a concentration of Venezuelans in these, these three buildings. Somebody put them there and somebody funded it. Whether it’s federal government or not, we’re trying to find out who.
These gangs apparently are attracted to where there’s a concentration of Venezuelan migrants. And so, they’ve, in fact, have kind of pushed out the property management through intimidation and then collected the rents. We have now, or have had, it is ongoing, operations with a task force of local law enforcement, state law enforcement partner, and federal law enforcement partners, to root them out. And arrests have been made, but these operations are now are still ongoing.
Smith followed up, “With the arrests have been made. Are these confirmed gang-affiliated members?”
“You know, they, this is an organized criminal effort. Whether it’s Tren de Aragua, that remains to be seen, but it really doesn’t matter. I mean, if they’re, you know, Venezuelan migrants in their in their, conducting crime in an organized way,” Coffman replied.
“Understood. So, okay, so you’re able to confirm that they, this Venezuelan, Venezuelan gang has indeed taken over at least some of the buildings. You’re saying at least two of the three. And what I just heard from you is you don’t know how they ended up there, and you even made a suggestion that they could have been sent there by federal officials. I heard you suggest. I mean, do you have any reason to believe that to be the case?” Smith pressed.
“So here’s a problem. I think we’re a victim of a failed policy at the southern border because, what you have, Venezuelan does not, according to my law enforcement, Venezuela does not cooperate with the United States in sharing criminal histories,” Coffman replied, adding:
You’ve had a third of the country leave. You’ve had these massive waves of migrants coming across the border that many of them crossed the border illegally, were arrested, asked for political asylum, were not adequately vetted, were released into the country. The city of Aurora. We did everything we could to, quite frankly, keep them out of out of the city because it’s not our problem. This is a federal problem.
This is a problem, borne by the federal government. But, what I think what we’re trying to find out, and what I believe occurred, was that federal agencies worked with some of our local nonprofits, and put them there. Now, most of these people are very good, good people. But there’s a criminal element that, from what I understand, what law enforcement is repeated that often follows them, intends to exploit them within their own migrant community. And so we believe that that is happening. Now, now it’s we’re the 54th largest city in America with over 400,000 population. This is only several apartment complexes. But nonetheless, I’m not going to surrender any part of this city to a criminal element.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
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