Federal prosecutors on Thursday announced felony charges against two foreign gang leaders they say directed robberies and a kidnapping in Denver in 2024.
The federal indictment filed in U.S. District Court and unsealed on Thursday calls the Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua, a criminal enterprise and charges Brawnis Dominique Suarez Villegas and Giovanni Mosquera Serrano with racketeering, firearms offenses, for their roles in two robberies in June 2024. They are also charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
Neither of the men are in the United States currently and authorities don’t believe they have ever been here. Instead, a grand jury charged they worked from either Colombia or Venezuela, to steer large-scale gang and drug operations that touched a number of American cities, including Denver.
The announcement, made by Colorado U.S. Attorney Peter McNeilly, Marv Massey, FBI Denver’s Special Agent in Charge, and Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas, was held amid the Trump administration’s increased push to target TdA gang members and Venezuelan foreign nationals accused of committing crimes.
Suarez Villegas is currently serving time in a Bogota, Colombia prison for killing a local police officer and officials say he will be extradited to the United States to face charges. The second man, Mosquera Serrano, is wanted and officials suspect he’s not in the United States.
Some of the charges result from a night when several people broke into two Denver jewelry stores and took more than $4 million worth of merchandise and beat several employees with a firearm. That led to at least eight arrests and several of those people have already been convicted and sentenced.
But officials said on Thursday that investigators, both federal and local DPD officers, kept pursuing the trail that led them all of the way back to South America.
“It's important to note that this did not begin as an investigation into Tren de Aragua, but that is where the facts led us,” Chief Thomas said. “Also, this announcement may naturally lead people to wonder whether criminal activity involving TdA is increasing or prevalent here in Denver, to which my answer is no.”
McNeilly declined to offer details or proof that they know that Suarez Villegas and Mosquera Serrano are alleged gang members, but said that evidence would come out in trial.
In addition to the robberies, authorities say that Suarez Villegas “directed and approved the torture and disfigurement” of a Denver victim. They allege that he directed the abduction of a man and tried to extract $30,000 in ransom from the victim’s family. When they failed to pay it, he directed associates to harm and kill him -- but at first the man’s finger was removed.
Officials said the victim was able to escape.
This year, the Justice Department said that federal prosecutors have charged 260 people believed to be members of Tren de Aragua. Thursday's announcement in Denver came the same day as indictments unsealed against 70 people in several other states, including New Mexico and Nebraska.
