(COLORADO) — On Wednesday, Feb. 12, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain Field Division (DEA RMFD) revealed its top 10 recent arrests made in the Denver Metro Area, including those with alleged ties to a Mexican cartel and Venezuelan gang.
As part two of FOX21’s one-on-one interview with Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Pullen, he further explained how agents are targeting and tracking down these suspected criminals including at makeshift nightclubs where guns, money, drugs, and prostitution all run rampant.
Pullen said the recent arrests included both members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) and from the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico.
Courtesy: DEA RMFD
“We’re seeing that the gang, Tren de Aragua (TdA), they are affiliated with the Sinaloa Cartel; we know that they are obtaining fentanyl from the Sinaloa Cartel, so we are seeing sort of these criminal groups that are coalescing and working together.”
TdA, which began as a Venezuelan prison gang, has since spread all across South America and in other countries, according to Pullen, and is involved in several crimes. “Here in the Denver area, they are involved in drug trafficking at large levels, weapons trafficking—you saw the videos from the apartment complex in Aurora—prostitution, [and] human trafficking.”
When Pullen took over seven months ago as Special Agent in Charge of the DEA RMFD, he said at first, people didn’t want to talk about TdA. “…I don’t really know the reasons behind that, but saying the words ‘TdA’ in law enforcement or political circles in Colorado was like saying a four-letter word in church, and for whatever reason, people wanted to act like they were nonexistent here in Colorado, but then my agents kept telling me that there was something there.”
That’s when things took a turn. “Shortly after I arrived, the guys seized 12 kilos of fentanyl from a TdA member coming across the mountains, and once that happened, that was sort of a bellwether moment for us and we knew that we really needed to focus more resources on investigating them and that’s what we’ve done,” Pullen added.
As part of the recent operations by the DEA RMFD, agents teamed up with several other federal agencies including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to bust a makeshift nightclub in Adams County. Several were taken into custody including many allegedly connected to TdA.
Courtesy: DEA RMFD
“And let me just be clear, people coming to that party and all of the other TdA parties that we were surveilling over the last several months, were not immigrants who just came across the border trying to find a job in construction and send money home to their families, these folks were in designer clothes, they had drugs, they had cash, they had guns, they were driving Mercedes G Wagons, these were criminals,” Pullen added.
These are not your ordinary nightclubs either: “…this is invite-only by serious gang members that are carrying guns… so they would spread the word on where the party was going to be and what time,” he said. “They might hype it up by hiring a DJ from somewhere and then people start rolling in.”
The saying, “Nothing good happens after midnight,” rang true. “…the parties only start after 2 a.m. by the way, and I think we executed our search warrant on the party at about 5 a.m.,” Pullen said. “At the nightclub we went to, prostitution was pretty rampant at those events and they would bring in prostitutes every weekend from someplace.”
On Jan. 26, the DEA RMFD shared videos and photos from the early morning operation during which 49 people were taken into custody. “DEA agents from the Rocky Mtn Field Division – and our LEO partners – disrupted the Tren de Aragua (TdA) party in Colorado so quickly and smoothly, some cerveza was still on ice when the dust settled,” wrote the DEA RMFD on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Courtesy: DEA RMFD
When we asked Pullen what he thinks will happen next in terms of tracking down more of these suspected criminals, here’s what he said:
“I think it’s a mix; I think we are going to see some people stay because maybe they have no other way to go home, especially for the Venezuelans, they can’t just cross the border to Mexico and be home, so it’s a little more complicated for them. I think we are already seeing them hiding… when we did the warrants in Aurora last week, we didn’t find as many TdA members as we wanted to, and that’s because they know we are looking for them and they are on the run, but guess what? We are looking for them everywhere we go.”
Courtesy: DEA RMFD
A message Pullen said is as strong as ever, especially with the renewed partnerships between federal agencies. “I’ve been in law enforcement, with the DEA, for 22 years and I’ve never seen cooperation like this before, and part of it is because the new administration has told us to get rid of all the hurdles,” he said. “Nothing stands in our way from our goal of keeping Americans safer and they are requiring for us to work together and we are happily doing it.”
Pullen pointed to these recent arrests as a key example. “We have not only gone into depth with their drug trafficking network, but we are working with other state and federal counterparts on the human trafficking piece, the gun trafficking, and started to illuminate the entire organization.”
