Federal law enforcement agents announced that they took almost 50 people, including many who were undocumented, into custody Sunday in Adams County.
An operation that involved members of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the Drug Enforcement Agency; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and local law enforcement targeted what officials said was drug trafficking that involved members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, or TdA.
“DEA’s Rocky Mountain Field Division has been investigating TdA drug trafficking since last summer, and today’s successful operation shows that the men and women of DEA will not rest until our communities are safe from this gang and the drugs they peddle,” Jonathan Pullen, a local DEA special agent in charge, said in a press release Sunday.
TdA has been at the center of a contentious debate about immigration in Colorado since some Republican city officials in Aurora last year amplified exaggerated and false claims, later repeated by President Donald Trump, that members of the gang had taken over parts of the city.
The site of the raid was an invite-only “makeshift nightclub” at 6600 Federal Boulevard, where “dozens” of TdA-connected people were present, according to federal officials, who characterized the event as a “Tren de Aragua (TdA) party.” More than 100 law enforcement personnel were involved in executing a federal search warrant in the 5 a.m. raid. They took 49 people into custody without incident. Officials said more than 40 of them were undocumented.
Officials said they seized cocaine, crack cocaine, and pink cocaine — also known as “tusi” — as well as “several weapons” and “a large amount of US currency.”
The Aurora Sentinel reported that about 40 people remained in ICE custody as of Sunday afternoon.
Trump has vowed to deport undocumented people “at a level nobody has ever seen before.” During a campaign rally in October in Aurora he falsely said that the city had been “invaded and conquered” by TdA. He said he planned to “hunt down, arrest and deport” undocumented immigrants connected to gangs and dubbed the plan Operation Aurora.