DENVER – The city of Aurora, Colorado, ordered the closure of the apartment complex where suspected armed Venezuelan gang members were seen on video breaking into an occupied unit, fueling Donald Trump’s campaign promise to target immigrants.
The Edge at Lowry will close sometime next month after the city received an emergency court order to close the five-building complex because it has become a criminal nuisance, city spokesman Ryan S. Luby said Wednesday. .
The city filed the petition last week after several armed members and alleged members of the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang also known as TDA, allegedly kidnapped, tied up and pistol-whipped two people at the complex last month.
City officials did not say what sparked the dispute.
“We needed to take over that property because it was completely unmanaged,” City Attorney Pete Schulte said at a news conference this week. “No one under that premise is going to prevent people from committing crimes.”
He said the complex and its trespassers posed an imminent threat to the public’s well-being and safety.
Nine of the 16 people involved in the alleged kidnapping are charged with various charges, including first-degree assault, aggravated robbery and extortion, the Aurora Police Department said in a statement.
It was unclear if any of the 16 were gang members. Police said they were all detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
About 60 units in the complex are occupied, including some vacant apartments that are being used illegally by gang members and squatters, city officials said, adding that they are working with Arapahoe County and other community partners to provide relocation assistance. to legitimate residents.
During an investigation, officers found weapons hidden in the walls of some units, city officials said. Records indicate officers searched five apartments on Dec. 17 and found at least three handguns, extended magazines and several knives.
The building is owned by Five Dallas Partners LLC and operated by CBZ Management LLC. Neither responded to requests for comment by phone and email.
The apartment buildings drew national attention in August when a viral video surfaced of suspected armed gang members breaking into an occupied unit.
Trump, then campaigning, took aim at Aurora, claiming the city had been taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and repeatedly claimed during a presidential debate that the TDA had taken over the apartments.
Weeks later, during a campaign rally in Aurora, Trump revealed his plans to target undocumented gang members in the mass deportations he said would begin once he took office. He called his initiative “Operation Aurora.”
At the time, local authorities acknowledged that the gang had a small presence in the city, but insisted that they had not taken over the complex. Some residents agreed the allegations were exaggerated, but others said they believed that was happening.
As of July 2024, there were 435,719 convicted criminal immigrants in the United States who were not in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, according to the federal agency. He did not say how many of them might have been gang members.
Last month’s alleged kidnapping sealed the fate of Edge at Lowry, which city officials called a distressed property with many “illegal tenants moving into empty apartments without applying for a lease or application.”
Mayor Mike Coffman declined to comment.
At the news conference announcing the closure, Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said, “The city of Aurora has seen a major problem that has been infecting our community.” He said the property was “infested with crime.”
Jessica Prosser, director of Aurora Housing and Community Services, said the property is uninhabitable, citing trash abatement orders and $70,000 in outstanding water, utility and gas bills.
