By MARYANN MARTINEZ, TEXAS BUREAU CHIEF FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
A notorious Colorado apartment complex taken over by a Venezuelan gang is being held siege by migrants now using it as a torture hub.
Tren de Aragua goons brutalized a couple at the Edge of Lowry complex in Aurora early Tuesday, police said, despite claims the besieged building had been cleaned-up.
‘To see this re-unfold again…am I fired up, yeah I’m fired up,’ Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlin told reporters Tuesday at a press conference.
The city’s top cop detailed how a man and woman who live in the troubled complex were held against their will and ‘tortured’ by 13 to 15 armed individuals.
‘Victims were held against their will, they were actually bound, both the male and the female,’ the chief explained.
‘They were pistol whipped, they were beaten, they were terrorized. The fact that one human could treat another human like this is appalling.’
While the pair was being held hostage, the attackers went to the unit where the victims live and stole items from them.
Eventually the gangsters released the victims, who reported what happened to them to 911 just before 2 a.m.
It is unclear if the pair were just targeted and tortured so the gangsters could steal from them and whether they were Colorado natives or innocent Venezuelan migrants.
Aurora police raided the Edge of Lowry apartment after a couple was tortured by suspected Tren de Aragua thugs Tuesday morning
Chief Chamberlin described the thugs as 13 to 15 armed migrants, including several women, and said they were probably Venezuelan.
Chamberlin confirmed 15 individuals are in custody, but no one has been charged yet since the victims have yet to identify their attackers.
The top cop says he can’t be certain the attackers are TdA members – but multiple local officers rubbished that ‘laughable’ claim to DailyMail.com
‘It could only be them,’ one local cop told DailyMail.com. ‘They run Edge of Lowry.’
They added that even Aurora police officers are instructed not to respond to the property alone and must have backup, usually several other officers, before TdA is considered so dangerous.
Edge of Lowry is one of three apartment complexes the vicious Venezuelan mafia took over in Aurora.
The gang’s exploits in suburban Denver came to light in August when footage from a doorbell camera shared by residents, fellow migrants, showed several armed migrants running up to a unit inside Edge of Lowry to threaten residents.
As reporting by DailyMail.com revealed, the gang had control of the property by seizing empty apartment units and illegally renting them out to other migrants.
‘Venezuelan gang’ seen carrying guns at Colorado apartment complex
Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlin said the Edge of Lowry Apartments are ‘infested’ with criminal activity months after the department became aware Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over the apartment complex and two other properties in Aurora
A map showing three Colorado apartment complexes taken over by the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang
The Edge at Lowry apartments was the second property taken over by the South American gang
Tren de Aragua gang tattoos (pictured above) were part of a Department of Homeland Security bulletin that was recently shared with federal agents
The empty units were also used as drug and prostitution dens were johns paid money for sex with women and most horrifically, children.
They also threatened apartment office staff who tried to bring order and evict the gang bangers from empty units– beating one man to a bloody pulp.
‘This is a location that is infested,’ Chamberlain added at Tuesday’s press conference when asked about TdA’s continued presence at Edge of Lowry apartments.
Two other nearby apartments, Whispering Pines and Aspen Grove were also seized by the gang.
Aspen Grove has been condemned by the city and is vacant now.
City officials have maintained the city does not have a gang problem, but as Daily Mail reporting revealed, law enforcement believes the gang has spread beyond just the three apartment complexes in Aurora.