DEA raids party, arrests nearly 50 undocumented immigrants and TdA gang members

Federal agents interrupted a party at a “makeshift nightclub” in north Denver early Sunday morning and arrested almost 50 people of undetermined immigration status, a large number of whom are reportedly affiliated with the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. 

A spokesperson with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain Division told CBS Colorado that the immigration status of all the arrestees was “questionable” and being examined. 

DEA agents, along with others from the Denver offices of Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, conducted an early morning raid. They entered a building at 6600 block of North Federal Boulevard when had been coverted into a “makeshift nightclub,” as described by the DEA in a social media post.

Drugs, weapons and cash were seized. 

The operation targeted drug trafficking and members of the TdA gang, the DEA stated. 

After those 50 undocumented immigrants were taken into custody by the DEA, they were handed over to ICE, according to Steffan Tubbs of the DEA-Rocky Mountain Division.

An ICE spokesperson contacted Sunday morning did not want to comment on the specifics of its role in the bust or speculate on how many of the arrestees would be held locally on criminal charges or immediately deported. A spokesperson with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado also declined to comment Sunday morning about potential federal charges against the arrestees.

TdA gang activity partly to blame for unsafe conditions at several apartment buildings in Aurora. City officials there announced last week their intent to seek closure of the five remaining buildings in the Edge of Lowry complex at Dallas Street and East 12th Avenue. Residents have already been asked to vacate a sixth building in which a migrant couple was taken captive and beaten by alleged gang members late last year. 

Nineteen people were arrested last month by Aurora Police Department officers in December as a result of their investigation into that incident. Sixteen of the 19 arrestees were at that time believed to be TdA members. 

Aurora officials took over management of the buildings from CBZ Management. A judge appointed a new manager to oversee the sixth building as tenants seek new housing. They’ve been given a Feb. 18 deadline to be out of the Edge of Lowry apartments. 

The City of Denver announced Friday its own closure of a CBZ managed apartment building, also for reported unsafe living conditions. 

An undisclosed number of officers from local police agencies supported the federal raid.