The video that catapulted a Colorado city to the center of the debate over illegal immigration and brought to the attention of millions of viewers the tentacles of a Venezuelan gang operating in metro Denver showed six men barging into an apartment unit.

In the video, posted on X in August, six men walked up the stairs at The Edge at Lowry apartments. Four carried guns; one of them a rifle. A another man was holding a cellphone.

One man knocked on Unit 301 twice. Somebody opened from the inside.

At the time, Aurora City Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky, who got hold of the video, said the footage showed members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang known, taking over the apartment complex.

Gov. Jared Polis downplayed the episode. The state was ready to support the local police, according to his office.

“But, according to police intelligence this purported invasion is largely a feature of Danielle Jurinsky’s imagination,” the governor’s spokesperson told Fox News.

Fast forward four months later and the city of Aurora and its police force have arrested four of the six men who barged into the apartment unit — one of the men was apprehended following an alleged home invasion, kidnapping and torture just this Monday. 

Arrested on Tuesday, the suspect, 20-year-old Niefred Jose Serpa-Acosta, is alleged to have been involved in the kidnapping and assault of two people at The Edge at Lowry, one of three troubled apartment complexes that the owners have claimed were taken over by Tren de Aragua (TdA).

The suspect already had a warrant out for his arrest for suspicion of burglary and menacing in connection with the August viral video barging into the apartment unit about 10 minutes before a fatal shooting in the 1200 block of Dallas Street, according to the Aurora Police Department.

The August video drew national and international scrutiny into the gang’s activities in Colorado and led the Aurora Police Department to launch “Operation Safe Haven,” a special task force that now investigate crimes involving the city’s immigrant population.

Serpa-Acosta’s arrest marks the fourth in connection with the viral video. 

Denyeer Aramillo Meneses, 23, and Edison Pena Angulo, 25, were arrested in the Bronx, New York, during an anti-gang operation on Nov. 27. Both men were allegedly seen in the video, forcefully entering a home with weapons drawn. 

Naudi Lopez-Fernandez, 21, was already in custody at the time of the police announced the arrest warrants targeting the suspects on Oct. 2.

The arrests leave Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco and Adan Jose Ramirez-Sanchez as the two suspects still at large.

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 trans-national gang has a diverse criminal portfolio that includes drug and human trafficking — particularly immigrant women and girls, kidnapping, extortion, and money laundering. 

At a press conference Friday, Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain confirmed that some of the suspects in Tuesday’s home invasion and kidnapping of a man and a woman people were connected to TdA.

Jurinsky earlier said gang members had ripped out the woman’s fingernails.

“So, while, yes, we’ve always had gang issues in Aurora, it’s not often we hear stories like this,” Jurinsky said. “This is a transnational gang unlike we have ever seen before. The Aurora police officers have made it clear that they are more dangerous, more violent and more organized than MS-13, and this is what we’re dealing with.”

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

All told, the police arrested 19 people; the police released three.

Aurora authorities said they are in the process of filing arrest warrants in the 18th Judicial District Court for 11 suspects, eight of whom are in the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The suspects face varying charges, including second-degree kidnapping, aggravated robbery, first-degree assault, extortion and burglary in connection to the home invasion and kidnapping.

In the incident, suspects allegedly robbed and assaulted the two victims, entered their apartment and stole valuables. They also forced the victims to give them banking information and other financial details, according to Chamberlain. 

The kidnapping and burglary all stemmed from one of the victims having a video of two women fighting on her phone, Chamberlain added.

“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.”

Authorities did not specifically say that Serpa-Acosta is a TdA member, but Chamberlain, the Aurora chief, noted that some of the suspects are “100% TdA.” 

During Friday’s press conference, Chamberlain hinted it was Serpa-Acosta who had a “female’s wig on and a female’s hat.” The police chief speculated that the disguise could be part of the reason he wasn’t caught earlier.