MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
This week, the Trump administration announced what it called a sweeping federal case targeting the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in Colorado. On the campaign trail, Donald Trump said the gang was taking over apartment buildings in suburban Denver. Then, as president, he declared it was a terrorist organization. Now Justice Department officials in Colorado say they are charging 30 people affiliated with the gang, charging them with crimes including selling drugs and guns and murder for hire. But the details of this case call into question how much of a gang takedown this actually is. Allison Sherry covers criminal justice for Colorado Public Radio. Hey, Allison.
ALLISON SHERRY, BYLINE: Hi.
KELLY: So those words, sweeping federal case, that makes this sound like a big deal, or at the very least like the Trump administration taking action on a campaign promise. Is that right?
SHERRY: Yeah, you know, nearly a year ago, President Trump held a campaign rally in Aurora, a suburb next to Denver, where people on the right were alleging the gang had taken over much of the city. Trump said he'd launch, quote, "Operation Aurora" and stood on a stage next to photos of alleged Tren de Aragua members in orange jumpsuits.
KELLY: OK, and that brings us up to now. And now the U.S. attorney in Colorado says they have arrested some of these alleged gang members.
SHERRY: Yes, U.S. attorney for Colorado Peter McNeilly billed it as this big break in a gang-based criminal organization. But when we actually read the affidavits, we noticed that a lot of these were old cases - some had been arrested months ago - and that this investigation actually started under President Biden last year. And they're mostly for gun and drug crimes, which are serious, but also fairly common. So this seemed to be kind of a repackaging of cases under a new banner, which is, this is taking down Tren de Aragua in Colorado.
KELLY: So I'm trying to piece all of this together. Did this operation, or did it not, take a lot of gang members off the streets?
SHERRY: Not really. Of the 30 arrested, the U.S. attorney says eight of them were gang members, and three of those people were leaders. And as been reported, they've been kind of loose about what qualifies as evidence of gang affiliation, tattoos, that sort of thing. But I think actually, more importantly, is that none of the actual crimes charged have anything to do with gangs or gang activity or gang connections. These are not racketeering cases, for example. They were operations conducted in some south Denver apartment buildings by undercover officers and a confidential informant.
They say they took down a sizable Tren de Aragua contingent, but that amounted to eight people. And two of them were actually in Colombia at the time of the arrests. So, you know, in other words, these criminal charges means the federal government won't have to prove any gang connections are real or whether anything they're saying about Tren de Aragua is true.
KELLY: And have you been able to ask about this, ask the U.S. attorney how they're reconciling those details?
SHERRY: Yeah. You know, reporters - there was a big bank of reporters there. And they asked about how big of a presence Tren de Aragua was in Colorado, and he declined to say. But the federal government has characterized this case, these cases, as one of the biggest Tren de Aragua investigations in the whole country.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PETER MCNEILLY: I have a message specifically for TDA. We will not let you use Colorado as your headquarters in the United States. We are committed to the total elimination of TDA.
KELLY: Allison, the presumed point is to make communities safer. So do we know, is Colorado safer than it was before?
SHERRY: Yeah, I mean, it's a very good question. I think the apartment buildings where this all started are definitely, undoubtedly safer, with fewer people carrying illegal guns and drugs. Calls for service in these buildings have gone down 75%, the sheriff says. But broadly, are we all safer, you know, given this operation? I think this is a question about opportunity cost. I think law enforcement always has to take into consideration what they prioritize, what they spend time and resources on.
KELLY: Right.
SHERRY: There are a lot of other gangs out there. The task force that worked on this case actually started to take on MS-13...
KELLY: Right.
SHERRY: ...But under the Trump administration has switched to focusing on Tren de Aragua. You know, MS-13 is a much bigger gang.
KELLY: OK.
SHERRY: Should the federal government have spent time on that?
KELLY: We'll leave it there.
SHERRY: Yeah.
KELLY: We'll leave it there. Allison Sherry of Colorado Public Radio. Thanks so much.
SHERRY: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
