Violent Activities of Venezuelan Gang Shown in Arrest File | Crime and Justice

Before they made national news, young Venezuelan gang members in Colorado were harassing each other at gunpoint, stealing cars to commit other crimes and crashing wherever they could find a bed, according to arrest documents obtained by The Denver Gazette.

A particular set of murders involving two of the 10 members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang arrested by Aurora police has involved a roughly 20-year tangle of Venezuelan immigrants in what appeared to be a free-for-all war.

Documents reviewed by The Denver Gazette tell the stories.

Two weeks before a confirmed TdA gang member was arrested for assault in a fight over rent money, he was the victim of a mob-style murder at The Edge at Lowry apartments at 1218 Dallas St. in Aurora, arrest affidavits show.

During the incident, Daniel Mora-Marquez told police he feared for his life, adding that if he was seen talking to authorities, “his family could be in danger in Venezuela.”

It wasn’t the only statement Mora-Marquez made to police that didn’t seem to line up with his actions.

He said he had not lived in the apartment at 1218 Dallas Street for a very long time and assured officers that he did not know the men who entered the apartment while he and a woman were sleeping inside.

He and Destiny Cruz told police they were married, but according to court records, they barely knew each other.

Last Wednesday, after what appeared to be a runaway, Mora-Marquez was arrested on warrants from Arapahoe and Adams counties alleging a two-month string of crimes from early April to late June, Aurora police said.

Those incidents included arrests stemming from an argument and assault over unpaid rent money in the 1600 block of Lima Street in Aurora on April 4.

That house is just a few blocks from the Aspen Grove apartments, which were the scene of other TdA activities before the complex was evicted and closed by the city in August.

Once arrested, he posted $20,000 bail but failed to appear at his hearing. With a second warrant for his arrest, Mora-Marquez fired six rounds into the home in the 400 block of Nile Street on June 29, according to police.

In that incident, Mora-Marquez retaliated against the homeowner for kicking him out, the homeowner told police.

He is also accused of assaulting his girlfriend while they were sitting in their car.

No one heard from the girlfriend or Mora-Marquez until he was arrested last Wednesday.

A convoluted plot

While Mora-Marquez was wanted for the Lima Street murder, he and Destiny Cruz became victims themselves, according to the documents.

On May 18, a man — later identified by Aurora police as a member of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang — broke into the couple’s second-floor apartment at The Edge at Lowry, according to arrest records.

The document indicated that the intruder, Carlos Gabriel Aranguren-Mayora, was a neighbor. Mora-Marquez told police he lived on the first floor of an adjacent building on The Edge property.

Cruz told police the suspect pointed a silver semi-automatic handgun at the couple and was joined at the front door by five to six other men.

While at gunpoint, Cruz said he heard Aranguren-Mayora remark, “they’re running s—-,” the affidavit said.

The intruders walked Cruz and Mora-Marquez at gunpoint to Cruz’s black Toyota Camry, threatened to shoot them and asked them in Spanish, “Do you want to die?” the stated mandate.

The couple then handed over the car keys, fled and eventually located an Aurora police officer and identified Aranguren-Mayora, the warrant added.

During their investigation, police learned he was out on bond for a separate case of criminal mischief and criminal threatening in Adams County.

Aranguren-Mayora, who was later arrested for the home invasion, faces one count of theft of an article valued at $5-$20,000, two counts of second-degree burglary and four counts of criminal threatening.

Aranguren-Mayora, 23, has a hearing scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, and Mora-Marquez’s next court appearance is an Oct. 30 preliminary hearing. Both cases are being prosecuted outside of Arapahoe County.

Aurora Police Department spokesman Joe Moylan would not say whether more arrests would be made of known TdA gang members, but he noted that the department will continue to release information about confirmed TdA members once they “are verified and check in detail”.

No history, no trace

A preliminary report on Mora-Marquez reveals almost nothing about him except his crimes. There is no record of a job, address, relatives, driver’s license or education. Only his crimes, which spanned Adams County, and his date of birth are listed.

His place of birth is marked only with “VZ”.

There is a breach of the 2023 Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Information on the other TdA member, Aranguren-Mayora, is even scarcer. For him, there is no minutes to be found. Any information the police might have gleaned from him would have been what he told them.

18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner said his office “actively monitors gang-related crime,” noting that immigrant crimes are difficult to prosecute with a population that often has no known criminal history.

“One of the many challenges we face is not having information about a suspect’s criminal history or their connections to other known criminals,” he said.

Still, he knows people are frustrated “when immigrants come into our country illegally and then commit crimes in our community,” Kellner said.