AURORA, Colorado — All it took for parts of this Denver suburb to descend into a migrant wasteland — with violent gang shootings, men brazenly toting guns in the open, drug dealing and shot-up cars — was for a few apartment buildings to fall into disrepair.
Aurora has been thrust into the national eye — even cited by former President Trump in Tuesday night’s debate — thanks to members of the violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, who have turned the bedroom community of 390,000 into a war zone.
The gangbangers have been using various dilapidated apartment complexes — like the one where Aurora native Jessica Montenegro and her young family were forced to flee — as their home base, terrorizing residents there with gun crime, theft and drug dealing.
For weeks, local officials denied the gang was operating in Aurora, brushing it off as a one-off problem.
However, after The Post revealed a top Tren de Aragua leader nicknamed “Cookie” was based in Aurora, cops on Wednesday publicly identified 10 suspected members of the gang who have been arrested in recent months for terrorizing the city.
Montenegro and her husband swept up their three kids and bolted from The Edge at Lowry complex after one harrowing encounter — a man with a gun in his waistband knocked on the door to their $1,200-a-month apartment one day and tried to get inside.
“Now that I think [about it], it’s really scary for me, not just for me, but for my kids,” said the mom, 35, who has two middle-school-aged kids and a 10-month-old. “I couldn’t imagine what could’ve happened if I was there still.”
Gang members poured into Aurora with a wave of Venezuelan migrants from Denver — the sanctuary city next door, which has taken in more than 42,000 migrants since 2022 — most of them from the politically unstable South American country.
That’s despite Aurora officials saying they wouldn’t provide support for any asylum seekers.
In July, police arrested him again alongside his brother Jhonnarty Dejesus Pacheco-Chirinos — also a Trend de Aragua member — this time for a shooting at the same complex that left two men wounded.
Most of the gang members identified by Aurora cops were busted at the city’s blighted apartment buildings, where trash and broken bottles litter the hallways.
One Aurora landlord told The Post that the gang took advantage of vacancies — and would move into empty units and take over. Then, they’d threaten maintenance workers and staff who tried to clean up the apartments, the source said.
https://nypost.com/2024/09/12/us-news/inside-the-migrant-gang-warzone-of-aurora-colorado/
Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, and Michael Bloomberg were joined by Donald Trump and J.D. Vance to pay respects at the 9/11 memorial. As they glad handed one another, the crowd off-camera was making it clear whom they wanted and loved.
The Democrats had to sit there and listen as the crowd chanted and cheered for Trump. Another woman in the crowd could be heard shouting "we need you," as Kamala Harris could only wave awkwardly at people.
https://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2024/09/11/watch-kamala-harris-and-democrats-have-to-stand-awkwardly-as-people-cheer-for-trump-at-911-event-n2179198
President Biden, Vice President Harris, former President Trump, Sen. JD Vance and Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg at 9/11 Ceremony in New York.
8:43 AM · Sep 11, 2024
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https://x.com/cspan/status/1833848762579751392