DEA takes suspected member of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua into custody in Denver metro area
The Drug Enforcement Administration Rocky Mountain Division took a suspected member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua into custody in the Denver metro area overnight. The agency posted a video on X of the person in handcuffs being led away from apartment buildings in Aurora.
CBS News Colorado crews were on the scene overnight with a large police presence at The Edge at Lowry apartments at 12th Avenue and Dallas Street.
This comes less than a day after CBS News Colorado learned that the Denver metro area is among the next targets for the stepped-up immigration arrest operations that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been conducting under the Trump administration.
A Venezuelan gang member wanted in Aurora on felony warrants, was arrested Tuesday in New York City. Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 26, was arrested early Tuesday morning by Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations officers in the Bronx borough of New York City.
The warrant stemmed from Aug. 18, 2024, when a doorbell camera captured Zambrano-Pacheco and five other armed men at the Edge at Lowry apartment complex.
Also on Tuesday, the Department of Defense said it approved a request from ICE for facilities inside the Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora, Colorado, to be converted into temporary staging and detention sites for migrants in the U.S. illegally who are facing deportation.
In a statement to CBS News, a Department of Defense spokesperson said the base is expected to house migrants with criminal records arrested during "an operation taking place in Colorado." ICE officials and other law enforcement authorities — and not military personnel — will administer the migrant detainee facilities, the spokesperson added.
Last month, more than a dozen suspects were detained in connection with an armed home invasion involving a stabbing and kidnapping at The Edge at Lowry apartments. Investigators with ICE told CBS News Colorado that all but three of the suspects detained are suspected members or associates of the TdA gang and all are Venezuelan nationals in the U.S. without authorization.