11 people, including Venezuelan gang members, facing potential charges in abduction, police say

DENVER — Eleven people, including some members of a Venezuelan gang, are facing potential criminal charges in connection with the violent abduction and beating of a couple this week at an apartment complex in a Denver suburb, police said Friday.

Eight of those suspects were being held by the federal Immigration, Customs and Enforcement agency after initially being detained by police in Aurora and another three have yet to be arrested. No charges have been filed yet.

Some of those facing charges have been identified as members of Tren de Aragua, a gang that started in an infamously lawless Venezuelan prison, Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said during a news conference providing an update on the case.

One of those facing charges is a man who was among six armed men seen knocking on an apartment door at the complex in a viral video in August, shortly before a fatal shooting outside, Chamberlain said. Police believe the 20-year-old man wore a woman’s wig and hat to avoid being found by police then, Chamberlain said.

The man was already wanted by police on burglary and menacing charges based on what was seen in the video. With his detention in the latest incident, four of the six men from the August video have now been taken into custody.

Chamberlain said this week's attack on a husband and wife stemmed from a video the wife took last month of two women fighting at the complex that also showed other people who were engaged in criminal behavior. The video was posted online, he said.

The armed group that accosted the couple took them to a vacant apartment where the couple was bound and beaten and the husband was stabbed, he said. The suspects took the wife's phone and destroyed the images of the fight, Chamberlain said. Their apartment also was burglarized, he said.

The couple also told police that the people who held them for roughly five hours had been extorting $500 from them regularly, Chamberlain said. Police are investigating whether other residents were also being forced to pay the suspects, he said.