Felicia Gurule’s hands trembled hours after DEA agents used a battering ram on Wednesday morning to break into “Pop’s” third-story apartment in Denver.

Federal agents, Gurule said, were looking for drugs after a friend recently died of a fentanyl overdose at Cedar Run Apartments.

First came the shout, “DEA, open the door!”

Next, multiple agents breached the apartment. And then came the flashbang.

“I didn’t get to the door in time to actually open it,” said Jeremiah Wisner, a family friend. Gurule calls him “Pops.” 

Gurule and her boyfriend, Fernando Martinez, are homeless. The couple said they spent the night at Cedar Run to get off the streets.

Wednesday’s raid marked the second major operation in the metro region in the last 10 days targeting alleged narcotics activities of individuals unlawfully residing in the U.S.

Agents with the Rocky Mountain Field Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration temporarily detained everyone in apartment 301A with cord and rip restraints, which littered the hallway. DEA officials said on social media that agents were executing a search warrant at the Cedar Run Apartments in Denver to target “wanted drug traffickers.”

Three people have died at the complex from fentanyl poisoning in the last month, according to the DEA.

“Our goal is to save lives. Period,” the agency’s social media post said.

The DEA also posted a picture showing graffiti on a wall at the apartment complex, one of three targeted in Wednesday’s raids.

The graffiti read: “In loving memory of those lost in drug land.”

The post included a video showing officers serving a warrant with one of them throwing a flash grenade in front of what appeared to be an apartment unit. The video did not indicate where the operation had occurred but noted that the DEA agents were supporting a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) operation.

Officials in the leasing office at Cedar Run declined to comment.

Located in southeast Denver, the 384-unit complex built in 1970 offers one and two-bedroom apartments near Cherry Creek.

Everyone in apartment 301A disputed that DEA agents provided them with a judicial warrant.

“They didn’t show nothing,” Martinez said. “They just let themselves in.”

At Cedar Run Wednesday, federal agents recorded the raid on their cell phones, Gurule said. 

At least three units in building A had a busted door.

Attorneys, who declined to speak with The Denver Gazette, conducted interviews with residents in the hours after agents conducted the early-morning operation.

It is unclear how many individuals were detained and arrested.

Steffan Tubbs, a spokesperson for the DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division, could not be immediately reached for comment.

‘Don’t open your door’

Authorities have carried out at least two operations since President Donald Trump was sworn in two weeks ago.

In the wee hours of Jan. 26, DEA agents conducted an operation at a “makeshift nightclub” in Adams County, detaining 49 individuals. Of those, 41 were unlawfully residing in the U.S., officials have said.

Since Trump took office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have largely focused their efforts on other major cities, despite a campaign promise that he would conduct a mass deportation effort beginning in Aurora.

Aurora was thrust into the national spotlight last fall after a Venezuelan prison gang known as Tren de Aragua (TdA) took over a few apartment complexes. The Aurora police recently arrested several gang members they believe were involved in the kidnapping and torture of a Venezuelan couple on one of the properties.

In the days since Trump was sworn in two weeks ago, ICE officials have announced on X that they have arrested and detained nearly 10,000 immigrants unlawfully living in the U.S.

According to the agency’s X account, ICE agents have made arrests in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Miami and New York City. Even in Charleston, South Carolina.

“Our first priority is arresting the worst offenders,” ICE officials said in a Jan. 31 post on X, formerly Twitter.

On Wednesday morning, federal agents turned their attention to Colorado, where Trump, on the campaign trail, cited the gang’s activities, promising to launch what he dubbed “Operation Aurora” in a crackdown specifically targeting TdA.

The Venezuelan gang, which in recent years extended its tentacles in the U.S., is linked to criminal activities that include human trafficking — particularly of immigrant women and girls — drug trafficking, kidnapping, and money laundering.

Just after 9 a.m., as agents handcuffed a young Hispanic man and placed him into a dark-colored sedan. Protesters yelled to him from across the street using a bullhorn:

“You have the right to remain silent!”

“Don’t sign anything!”

“Don’t open your door!”

“You don’t have lawful warrants!”

When conducting operations, ICE agents often rely on what is called “an administrative warrant” that is signed internally. An administrative warrant is fundamentally different than one signed by a judge. Residents are not required to open their doors to ICE agents with an administrative warrant, according Violeta Chapin, an immigration attorney and University of Colorado Boulder law professor.

“I want to make sure ICE respects people’s rights, whether someone is an immigrant or not,” said Nate Kassa, an organizer with the East Colfax Community Collective (EC3).

Kass added: “The U.S. Constitution protects all U.S. residents whether you’re an immigrant or not.”

Comprised of local businesses, nonprofits and residents, EC3 is an advocacy organization created to fight displacement, according to the group’s website.

‘Trying to figure out who is in our city’

Federal agents in Kevlar vests blocked off the road at Leetsdale Drive in front of the Cedar Run Apartment complex in Denver, while protesters staged across the street with a crush of reporters as the raid unfolded.

“It’s important for the community to show up in this moment,” said Elle Taylor, an organizer with the Denver Party for Socialism and Liberation. “We can’t let this happen.”

An armored vehicle emblazoned with the DHS logo left the complex with agents around 9:15 a.m., with five vehicles in tow — a mix of SUVs and sedans.

Colorado lawmakers said they were monitoring the raids.

“We’re taking action with some of our local folks to be helpful,” State Sen. President James Coleman said, adding that he also met with Denver City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis.

Aurora City Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky — who shot to prominence nationally last year by raising the issue of the Venezuelan gang — defended the raids, saying ICE agents were “just trying to figure out who is in our city, and who is in our country.”

Jurinsky said she spoke with a resident of the Whispering Pines apartments — another complex — on Wednesday morning.

“They knocked on her door, she produced her residency card, it was expired,” Jurinsky quoted the woman as telling her. “ICE told her she needed to renew it and then they went on their way.”

The woman’s husband does not have any kind of residency documentation, Jurinsky said, but the agents did not ask to come inside.

“They did not kick the door in or run into her home,” Jurinsky said. “They were polite.”

“Right now, they just want to know who’s here,” she said. 

Typically, illegal immigration directly affects border states. Interior states like Colorado began to experience an influx of immigration two years ago after 90 immigrants were dropped off at Union Station, left to wander in the cold. Since then, Denver has welcomed nearly 43,000 immigrants, mostly from South and Central America, particularly Venezuela. Many arrived in the city after illegally crossing the southern border with Mexico.

Bus, plane and train tickets city officials purchased to send immigrants on to their final destination suggest about half have stayed in Colorado.

Early in the crisis, Denver officials decided local taxpayers would assume the roughly $80 million cost, which had threatened to push the city’s finances to the brink, setting off cuts to services and the budget.