AURORA, Colo. — Three additional suspects with confirmed or suspected ties to a Venezuelan gang were arrested in connection with a July shooting, the Aurora Police Department announced Wednesday.
Denver7 previously reported the arrest of 22-year-old Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirinos, a documented member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), for a July 28 shooting that wounded two men in the area of E. 16th Avenue and Nome Street in Aurora.
On Wednesday, Aurora police confirmed three additional arrests made in connection to that shooting. Among them was 24-year-old Jhonnarty Dejesus Pacheco-Chirinos, the brother of Jhonardy and a "documented" TdA member, according to Aurora police. Two others who were arrested for allegedly tampering with evidence – 20-year-old Dixon Azuaje-Perez and 19-year-old Nixon Azuaje-Perez – have gang ties and are "suspected" members of TdA.
The two brothers with confirmed ties to TdA are in the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Dixon and Nixon each posted a $1,000 bond and are no longer in custody, according to Aurora PD.
According to an arrest affidavit for Jhonnarty Pacheco-Chirinos related to the July incident, officers were called to the apartments off Nome Street after reports of a group of people shooting at each other from different floors of the building. Jhonnarty faces charges of criminal attempt to commit murder in the first degree and illegal discharge of a firearm.
A separate arrest warrant affidavit obtained by Denver7 earlier Wednesday states Jhonardy Pacheco-Chirinos was named as a suspect in a Nov. 2023 assault. That affidavit, which was filed in March 2024, said a man was left bloodied and with apparent broken bones after being hit with a beer bottle and beaten by a group of men last November at the apartment complex at 1568 N. Nome Street.
The affidavit states Jhonardy is "part of a gang that steals from Walmart and believes they own the apartment complex.” His ties to TdA were not mentioned in the March affidavit but were confirmed by a city spokesperson on Aug. 30.
Jhonardy was arrested for first-degree assault in connection with the November incident but he bonded out.
An Aurora PD spokesman on Wednesday told Denver7 that 10 documented members of TdA have been arrested. Six are in custody, including the two brothers from the Nome Street shooting. The spokesperson said the 10 arrests are related to crimes "assumed to stretch beyond just Nome Street."
Aurora PD said it received several claims from "members of the migrant community" of alleged gang members collecting rent at the apartment complexes. APD has not established probable cause to make any arrests on those claims.
Watch our latest report on these arrests below:
Denver7 has been following developments in Aurora ever since city officials earlier this month told dozens of residents – many of them immigrants from Venezuela – that the apartment complex they were living in was going to be shut down due to a long list of code violations, which the property management company blamed on the TdA gang.
Since then, Denver7 has kept you informed about Aurora’s effort to investigate the gang’s presence in the area, as well as more recent developments from the feds, which announced Wednesday they had partnered with Aurora PD as revelations come to light that “components” of the gang have been operating in both Aurora and Denver, though the crimes appear to be isolated at this time.
Last Friday, the Aurora Police Department shared a video that showed officers engaging with residents of The Edge at the Lowry apartment complex, located at 1218 Dallas St. – one of several buildings at the center of concerns regarding alleged activity by TdA.
In the video, Interim Aurora Police Chief Heather Morris said that officers found no evidence of a gang takeover.
“We've been talking to the residents here and learning from them to find out what exactly is going on. And there's definitely a different picture. I'm not saying that there's not gang members that don't live in this community, but what we're learning out here is that gang members have not taken over this complex,” Morris said.
Despite unfounded claims of gang takeovers, Denver metro police agencies, including APD, did confirm that TdA is operating in the metro area, and the City of Aurora said it is taking the threat seriously.
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