Eleven people, including gang members, may face kidnapping charges, police said

Police say 11 people, including some members of a Venezuelan gang, face possible criminal charges in the violent kidnapping and beating of a couple at an apartment complex in suburban Denver

DENVER – Eleven people, including some members of a Venezuelan gang, may face criminal charges in connection with the violent kidnapping and abuse of a couple this week at a suburban Denver apartment complex, police said Friday.

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

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

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

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

Chamberlain said the attack on a married couple this week stemmed from a video the woman took last month that showed two women arguing in the complex and also included other people, who behaved criminally. The video was posted online, he said.

The armed group that attacked the couple took them to a vacant apartment, where the couple was tied up and beaten and the husband was stabbed, he said. The suspects took the woman’s phone and destroyed the images of the fight, Chamberlain said. Her apartment was also broken into, he said.

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