The Venezuelan gang that infiltrated and terrorized tenants at three apartment complexes in Aurora used similar tactics to seize control of a San Antonio apartment complex, highlighting the increasingly disparate strategies employed by police in these cities.

In both instances, Tren de Aragua (TdA) appeared to have gained a foothold in buildings largely occupied by Venezuelan nationals who arrived in both cities after illegally crossing the southern border.

Law enforcement in San Antonio responded to the gang’s presence with handcuffs, while Aurora police countered with eviction notices.

A gang expert called that strategy of shutting down a bulding “very rare,” while at least one local official is worried it would only encourage TdA members to set up shop in another complex.

“It’s not to say it won’t work; it’s just not on the list of strategies known to disrupt gang activity,” said David Pyrooz, a sociology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. “But unique problems may call for unique solutions.”

Pyrooz’s field of study includes gangs, criminal networks, incarceration and re-entry.

In a pre-dawn sweep in October dubbed “Operation Aurora,” the San Antonio Police Department descended on the Palatia Apartments, arresting more than 20 individuals — at least four of whom were confirmed TdA gang members taken into federal custody.

Undercover officers discovered TdA “had taken over vacant apartments and were engaged in illicit activities,” San Antonio officials said

Following the raid, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said in a press conference that the operation was in response to multiple complaints of drug and human trafficking, as well as threats against apartment personnel.

San Antonio police cleared nearly 300 vacant apartments.

McManus had a message for TdA.

“We are on to you, and we’re coming for you,” the police chief said. “We know where you, are and we’re coming for you.”

San Antonio police said TdA was involved in prostitution, selling of cocaine, and other violent crimes.

John Barker, owner of Palatia Apartment Homes, declined to comment but has told Texas media that the Aurora similarities struck him.

‘We turned a blind eye’

The authorities in Aurora took a different tack.

City officials moved to shut down Aspen Grove, a 99-unit complex, citing health and safety issues. The closure in August left about 300 people homeless.

Now, the city is looking to close a second apartment complex owned by the same Brooklyn-based company, CBZ Management. A criminal nuisance case filed against The Edge at Lowry, a 72-unit complex, is proceeding through court. Officials do not expect any movement in the case until mid-January. Tenants will have 30 days to vacate.

Earlier this week, Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain revealed the city’s tactic to combat TdA includes shutting down apartment complexes operated by the gang.

“It’s definitely a strategy because, again, the problem is complex in that particular complex that I think it has to be broken up,” Chamberlain said.

Court and other documents show the owners have either requested or supported the closure.

Typically, law enforcement does not shut down an apartment complex as part of a strategy to target gangs. Doing so in Aurora appears to be a move to disrupt the gang’s illicit activities.

Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky worries that the strategy will only force TdA gang members out of one location and into another.

Jurinsky, one of the first to point to the gang’s tentacles in Colorado, said the issues at The Edge at Lowry and Whispering Pines worsened after the city boarded up Aspen Grove in August.

“The city shut them down and pushed them further into other properties,” said Jurinsky, chair of the city’s public safety committee.

Jurinsky said she was the first to speak publicly about the gang.

Some federal, state and city officials — including authorities in Aurora — downplayed, and in some instances denied, the gang’s existence.

In September, U.S. Rep. Jason Crow posted on X, “There is no gang take over in any part of Aurora.” In response to a video of armed men barging into an apartment unit, Gov. Jared Polis said the state was ready to support the local police but also added, “According to police intelligence, this purported invasion is largely a feature of Danielle Jurinsky’s imagination.”

“We essentially enabled them,” Jurinsky said of the gang. “We didn’t try to disrupt their operation. We turned a blind eye and welcomed them in.”

Originally a prison gang in Aragua, Venezuela, TdA has expanded its tentacles into the western hemisphere, including the metro Denver region, where local law enforcement has arrested gang members on various charges.

‘A transnational gang unlike we have ever seen’

The latest string of arrests came this week, when Aurora police received a 911 call for a kidnapping and home invasion.

On Monday, a Venezuelan couple were kidnapped from their Aurora apartment at The Edge at Lowry, one of three troubled apartment complexes that the owners have claimed were taken over by TdA.

The couple was bound, pistol-whipped and tortured for hours, begging for their release, the Aurora police said.

The male victim, a former Venezuelan police officer, was stabbed in the leg multiple times, while gang members ripped the female victim’s fingernails out using pliers, Jurinsky said.

“This is a transnational gang unlike we have ever seen before,” Jurinsky has said. “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.”

At a press conference announcing the arrests last week, Chamberlain declined to say what he believed the motive was for the attack.

Jurinsky said the woman had been posting online about the gang’s activities.

And while Chamberlain praised the couple’s courage in stepping forward, Jurinsky said police initially believed the 911 call was a “swatting” incident — or a prank phone call, in which bad actors report a fictitious crime. That was because the victims hid from the police.

Gangs with members from a particular racial or ethnic background frequently prey on victims with the same identity largely because gangs tend to operate within their neighborhoods and social circles.

TdA is no exception.

After months of denials that shifted the blame on the apartment owners, Jurinsky applauded Chamberlain for owning the problem he inherited from his predecessor, Interim Chief Heather Morris, who held the post for less than a year.

Before the arrests last week, Aurora police had identified and arrested about 10 TdA gang members.

“They’ve made more arrests in 24 hours than they have in the last five months,” Jurinsky said.

‘A whack-a-mole mentality’

In July, the Biden Administration sanctioned the Venezuelan gang, believing ut was behind a spree of kidnappings, extortion and other crimes tied to immigrants from South and Central America.

In announcing the ban, the government’s action underscores the escalating threat TdA poses to Americans.

The gang has a diverse portfolio of criminal activities that includes human trafficking, particularly immigrant women and girls; drug trafficking; kidnapping; extortion; and, money laundering.

The move meant Tren de Aragua joined other transnational criminal organizations, such as The Camorra from Italy and Mara Salvatrucha that have been banned from doing business in the U.S.

Commonly known as MS-13, Mara Salvatrucha is perhaps the most notorious street gang in the West. While formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s by an El Salvadoran immigrant, the gang has now extended its reach from Central America to Europe.

MS-13 is also one of roughly two dozen gangs operating in Aurora.

Aurora residents who live near the apartment complexes overtaken by the Venezuelan gang have been desperate for city officials to respond and address the growing crisis.

“I do think that there is a whack-a-mole mentality,” said Stephen Elkins, a member of the Mabry Safety Collective.

Formed over the summer, the Mabry Safety Collective is a neighborhood group that seeks to address the city’s pressing safety issues in northwest Aurora, with the Edge as a focus.

Residents want to be kept apprised of the gang’s activities.

“We’re not set up for a crisis,” Elkins said.