The home invasion, kidnapping and torture at a troubled apartment complex in Aurora — perpetuated, the local police chief said, by a Venezuelan gang at the center of a national firestorm over illegal immigration — began with a cellphone video showing two women fighting.

That video, the police later said, included “a number of other individuals in and around that apartment complex that were involved in criminal activity.”

The woman who took and shared the video was one of two victims of a kidnapping that happened on Monday night, Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain revealed at a press conference on Friday.

The suspects wanted the phone so they could delete the video, Chamberlain said. 

In the process, the police chief said, the suspects robbed and assaulted the victims, entered their apartment and stole valuables. They also forced the victims to give them banking information and other financial details, he said.

“This was not a one-case scenario in my opinion,” Chamberlain said. “This was an incident where these victims have been victimized over and over again. I think it’s a situation where these suspects have basically victimized people of their own ethnicity based upon the fact that the immigrant population does not want to come forward or be involved in conversations with law enforcement because they feel that there’s going to be some retribution.”

Chamberlain confirmed that some of the people arrested have been identified as Tren de Aragua members.

Although he did not say how many of the suspects are alleged TdA members, he has “no doubt,” the police chief said, that the Venezuelan prison gang was involved in the incident. 

The trans-national gang has a diverse criminal portfolio that includes drug and human trafficking — particularly immigrant women and girls, kidnapping, extortion, and money laundering. The Aurora police had known for about a year that gang members are known to “infiltrate migrant caravans headed for the United States,” according to an internal, special bulletin distributed to officers on Oct. 5, 2023.

Aurora officials also knew, or strongly suspected, for much longer than previously disclosed, that the Venezuelan gang operating in their city was much larger than a handful of members at a single apartment complex, according to emails obtained by The Denver Gazette. The emails painted a dire picture showing internal conflicts and worries about the political fallout — and a police force fearful of venturing into areas without a solid backup. They cited intelligence reports saying more than 100 TdA members were operating in the Denver area, and that the gang intended to make Denver their headquarters in the U.S.

The two kidnapping victims are Venezuelans who Chamberlain said are immigrants unlawfully staying in the U.S. They were kidnapped Monday night from The Edge at Lowry, one of three troubled apartment complexes that the owners have claimed were taken over by the gang.

They were then bound, pistol-whipped and tortured for hours before being released, the police said. 

The city filed a criminal nuisance complaint against the property owners a few weeks ago. The attorneys for the property have until Dec. 30 to answer the complaint and have yet to do so, a city spokesperson said. 

Chamberlain said the suspects released the victims “based upon the (belief) that these victims would not go to the police.” The victims called law enforcement, he said. 

Of the 19 people originally detained on Tuesday, three have been released, while 16 are in ICE custody. 

While it is difficult for law enforcement to determine who is and is not a gang member, “some of them are 100% TdA,” Chamberlain said. 

One of the people apprehended this week was also involved in a TdA incident back in August, Chamberlain said. When he was arrested this week, he “had a female’s wig on and a female’s hat,” the police chief said, speculating that the disguise could be part of the reason he wasn’t caught earlier. 

Others may be gang members or affiliates as well, but Chamberlain said it is especially difficult to determine TdA members due to their unwillingness to self-identify and lack of information about the gang.

Chamberlain said he does not assume anyone is part of a gang; nor would he outright believe claims of TdA membership — not until he is absolutely certain, he said.

“One thing we’re not going to do is fall into the arena of moral panic, where we say just because you were there you are now a TdA gang member,” he said. “It cannot happen that way.”

He said there are still other TdA members in Aurora, and the department will continue to focus on finding them.

The arrests made were “not a mass deportation,” Chamberlain said, maintaining the individuals who had been arrested were involved in the incident and the police did not come “knocking on doors and arresting innocent people.”‘

Aurora, a city of roughly 400,000, has found itself at the center of national and international news following reports of TdA’s tentacles in three apartment complexes, including where the alleged home invasion occurred.     

And long before reports of the Venezuelan prison gang infiltrating the apartments, the arrival of hundreds of thousands of immigrants in America’s interior cities brought the illegal immigration crisis beyond the country’s border states.

In Colorado, some 43,000 immigrants, who illegally crossed the southern border, arrived in Denver since December 2022. About half have stayed — the equivalent of adding roughly 21,500 people, or a city the size of Golden, in less than two years. The vast majority are from South and Central America, particularly Venezuela. 

During the presidential campaign, President-elect Donald Trump identified the Colorado city as the launching pad for what he dubbed “Operation Aurora,” the start of what he promised to be the largest mass deportation in American history. 

When asked if he would cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Chamberlain said he would welcome the help of federal agents to take dangerous people into custody, but that his department’s focus is keeping people safe — not mass deportations.

“That’s not what the role of municipal law enforcement is — to get involved in the immigration process,” Chamberlain said. “Our role is to serve. If you don’t want to have a negative contact with law enforcement, then don’t break the law.”

Meanwhile, Mayor Mike Coffman on Friday said the Trump campaign’s claims that Aurora had been taken over by gangs is “simply not true.”

He also said, as he has before, that Denver Mayor Mike Johnston sent immigrants into Aurora without telling him.

The city of Aurora is going through the process of an open records request to get more information about that, Coffman said. 

“We have never been a sanctuary city,” Coffman said, emphasizing what he described as the negative impact of Johnston moving immigrants into Aurora without the city’s consent. “It’s unfair to us as a city because it compromised our public safety, and it’s unfair to the people that were moved here because we’re not a city and a county.”

Aurora has not had any financial help from the state assisting incoming immigrants, he added. The city has, however, had state and federal law enforcement help in handling the gang issues.

Chamberlain said the lack of help extends far beyond just the state — and the solution needs to come from tighter border patrol. 

The police chief said he hopes the incident and the subsequent arrests proved to other victims of crime that they can come forward and get help. 

“Everybody that could or might be in that same situation, please use this as an example of what will occur,” he said. “We will be there for you. We will hold those who victimize you accountable. We do not care about your immigration status. We don’t care if you’re documented or undocumented. What we care about is your safety.”

Editor’s note: Mayor Mike Coffman clarified that the state has not provided financial assistance to Aurora. The story originally said the state has not helped Aurora.