A Denver man’s roommates turned his home into a torture chamber after uncovering his family’s law enforcement ties, launching a brutal ransom plot at the direction of violent Tren de Aragua (TdA) leaders, federal prosecutors said Monday.
The alleged victim survived days of abuse before escaping and walking into a police station missing a finger, prosecutors said.
His captors had recorded the torture and sent the video to his wife, demanding money from his family in Venezuela.
Darwin Veliz-Gonzalez, Jefferson Balza-Delfin and Yender Enrique Campos-Malave, all Venezuelan nationals, were each sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for the kidnapping and torture, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announced.
A fourth defendant’s sentencing was postponed.
“This is what Tren de Aragua was doing in our community,” US Attorney Peter McNeilly said. “Colorado is safer with these violent criminals in federal prison for the next 20 years, and we will continue to pursue every member of Tren de Aragua until there are no more left in our state.”
The victim had been renting a room in the Denver home, when his roommates learned that he and his father were police officers in Venezuela and took him captive, prosecutors said.
They tied him up with rope and held him for several days without food and with very little water.
During that time, the men filmed themselves strangling him with a rope until he nearly lost consciousness, repeatedly holding his head in a bucket of water for 30 seconds or longer, threatening him with a gun and pistol-whipping him.
They sent the recordings to his wife to demand ransom from his family in Venezuela and shared them with international TdA leaders, whom they consulted about the kidnapping, prosecutors said. --->READ MORE HERE
Federal prosecutors say three Venezuelan men connected to Tren de Aragua were sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for kidnapping and torturing a Venezuelan man in Denver in October 2024
Federal prosecutors say three Venezuelan nationals connected to Tren de Aragua have been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for kidnapping, torturing, and severing the finger of a Venezuelan man with a pair of pliers at a home in Denver in 2024.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado, four defendants kidnapped and tortured the man after learning that he and his father had been police officers in Venezuela. Prosecutors said two of the defendants were roommates with the victim.
During a news conference on Monday, attorneys detailed the abuse that happened in October 2024. Federal prosecutors said the group of men tied the victim up with rope and held him without food and very little water for several days. Authorities said the four defendants filmed themselves torturing the victim by strangling him with a rope until he nearly lost consciousness, repeatedly holding his head in a bucket of water for 30 seconds or more, threatening him with a firearm, and pistol whipping him.
Attorneys said the defendants sent the videos of the torture to the victim's wife, who was in Venezuela, and demanded $30,000 in ransom. Prosecutors said the men had video calls with international leadership of the Tren de Aragua gang, with whom they also consulted about the kidnapping.
When the family did not pay the ransom, attorneys said one of the men used a pair of pliers sever the victim's pinky, an act that was also filmed. On Oct. 16, 2024, attorneys said the Denver Police Department received a welfare call at the home on South Hazel Court in Denver. Prosecutors said officers responded to the home but did not find anyone in distress. Attorneys said after police were gone, three of the men left the home and the victim escaped and went to a police station. --->READ MORE HERE
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