Three Venezuelans get 20 years each for Tren de Aragua kidnapping and torture in Denver

Right · 2Darwin Veliz-Gonzalez, Jefferson Balza-Delfin and Yender Enrique Campos-Malave, all Venezuelan nationals, were each sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for a kidnapping and torture plot in Denver, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado announced. 1 2 Right · 1A fourth defendant's sentencing was postponed. 1 Right · 2Federal prosecutors said 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 at the direction of Tren de Aragua (TdA) leaders. 1 2

Right · 1According to prosecutors, they tied him up and held him for several days with no food and very little water, and 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. 1 Right · 1Prosecutors said the men 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. 2 Right · 2When the family did not pay, one gang leader suggested cutting off a finger to pressure them, and Balza-Delfin then used pliers to sever the victim's right pinky finger, an act the men also filmed. 1 2

Right · 2Denver police went to the South Hazel Court home on Oct. 16, 2024, after a welfare call reporting a kidnapping there, but a limited visual search found no one in distress because the victim, still inside, was too afraid to make himself known. 1 2 Right · 1After the visit three of the men fled, giving the victim a chance to escape; he walked into a Denver police station the next morning, reported the kidnapping and assault and showed officers his missing finger. 2 Right · 1U.S. Attorney Peter McNeilly said, "This is what Tren de Aragua was doing in our community," adding that Colorado is safer with the men in prison and that his office will keep pursuing every TdA member in the state. 1

Right · 1Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas praised the victim for coming forward and applauded all victims, "regardless of immigration status," for reporting crimes. 1 Right · 1A federal grand jury has separately indicted Brawins Dominique Suarez Villegas, also known as "Chino San Vicente," for his alleged role in the kidnapping and torture, and he is accused of taking part in a broader TdA operation involving robbery, extortion, kidnapping, money laundering and drug crimes between May 2024 and approximately March 2025. 2 Right · 1The FBI's Denver Field Office and Denver police investigated; FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Amanda Koldjeski cited the case as part of efforts to disrupt and dismantle TdA through the bureau's Violent Criminal Enterprise Task Force. 2