A Tren de Aragua gang member who was seen in a viral video last year, armed and forcing his way into an Aurora, Colorado, apartment complex taken over by the gang, was handed a 12-year prison sentence.
Niefred Serpa-Acosta was involved in the armed break-in at the Edge at Lowry apartments on Aug. 18, 2024, as well as a brutal kidnapping of a couple at the complex the following December. An Arapahoe County judge sentenced Serpa-Acosta last month after he entered a guilty plea, according to 9 News.
Minutes after the armed gang members stormed the apartments, a fatal shooting took place, according to CBS Denver.
The Venezuelan gang member, however, successfully fled the scene.
Police in Aurora later captured Serpa-Acosta, who was dressed as a woman and wearing a wig, for his role in the couple’s kidnapping which the woman was pistol-whipped and the husband was stabbed in the thigh.
He later pleaded guilty to a burglary with intent to menace and assault the people inside the apartment and to using a weapon during the attack, according to 9 News.
Mugshot of Niefred Serpa-Acosta (Credit: Aurora Police Department)
When Serpa-Acosta took part in the apartment takeover with five others, he was already ordered deported by an immigration judge, Homeland Security sources told The Daily Wire. The Biden administration released him from ICE custody a month before and after he had already racked up two arrests for theft.
It is likely that Serpa-Acosta couldn’t be deported because the Biden administration was unable to force Venezuela to accept removal flights. Shortly after entering office, the Trump administration brokered a deal with the Maduro regime to resume the flights.
Serpa-Acosta also admitted his gang ties to the feds and had the organization’s signature tattoos, the sources said.
The illegal immigrant crossed the border into El Paso, Texas, in December 2022 and was set to be turned back to Mexico, but he was eventually released into the U.S.
He was arrested in June 2023 in Lakewood, Colorado, for theft before he was again released. He then turned up in Fort Collins, where he was arrested in April 2024 for another theft.
He was eventually let go again and arrested for a third time for resisting an officer, obstructing police, and larceny in another Denver suburb; ICE then took him into custody.
All the while, officials in Colorado, including Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, denied the gang’s takeover of apartment complexes in Aurora.
While on the campaign trail, President Donald Trump pledged to carry out “Operation Aurora” to target the gang’s foothold in the Denver suburb. Immigration raids soon took place in Colorado, resulting in the arrests of dozens of gang members.
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