By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-10-01 12:40:56 | Updated at 2024-10-02 02:44:08
14 hours ago
A billionaire Donald Trump donor is behind a billboard on the Wyoming-Colorado border that says, 'Venezuela ahead, BE PREPARED.'
Drivers entering Colorado from Wyoming on I-25 have been met with the sign with the Venezuelan flag and the warning ahead of the November presidential election.
The billboard references reports out of Aurora of the Tren de Aragua gang taking over buildings and committing crimes in the Denver suburb, where at least 10 Venezuelan gangsters have been arrested.
The sign also reads: 'Paid for by Clipper Properties LLC, Tim Mellon, Member.'
Mellon, the heir to a banking fortune worth an estimated $14.1billion, is one of Trump's biggest supporters, USA Today reported. His family founded Mellon Bank in the 1800s and were principal investors in Gulf Oil.
Drivers entering Colorado from Wyoming on I-25 have been met with the sign with the Venezuelan flag and the warning ahead of the November presidential election
Tim Mellon, the heir to a banking fortune worth an estimated $14.1billion, is one of Trump's biggest supporters. Mellon is pictured in 1981
The reclusive billionaire, 82, has given $75 million to Trump's campaign, and also contributed $25 million to Robert Kennedy Jr's failed independent bid.
He has donated a total $227 million to political campaigns, mostly to Republicans.
Mellon, who is reportedly based in Wyoming, has been accused of racism over statements he made in his memoir, panam.captain.
He wrote in the book: 'Black people, in spite of heroic efforts by the ‘Establishment’ to right the wrongs of the past, became even more belligerent and unwilling to pitch in to improve their situations.'
The controversial billboard is also backed by former Wyoming Speaker of the House through his Clipper Properties LLC,.
Many of the arrests stem from violent activity at the properties, particularly the Whispering Pines apartments, whose landlord has claimed the gang overtook the property late last year and began charging 'rent' from tenants
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Council Member and Public Safety Chair Danielle Jurinsky have denied that Tren de Aragua has 'taken over' the city, and say there are only issues in a few properties.
'TdA has not 'taken over' the city,' the said in a statement.
'The overstated claims fueled by social media and through select news organizations are simply not true. Again, TdA’s presence in Aurora is limited to specific properties, all of which the city has been addressing in various ways for months.'
Focus on Tren de Aragua jumped after footage from a security camera surfaced on social media showing a group of heavily armed men brazenly entering an apartment in Aurora.
That prompted Trump to vow to 'liberate Aurora' from Venezuelans he falsely said were 'taking over the whole town.'
Police have called the reports exaggerated but nonetheless acknowledged that it is investigating 10 gang members for involvement in several crimes, including a July homicide.
Aurora police have identified the Tren de Aragua gangsters arrested in connection to their reported violent takeover of several apartment complexes in the city
Among them is a Venezuelan who was arrested in another Denver suburb and accused of helping someone else steal a motorcycle and pointing an AR-15 at a tow truck driver who had asked him to move his car. Another was suspected of stealing designer Gucci sunglasses in Boulder and has a multi-state criminal record, including for carjacking and vehicular assault.
The law firm Perkins Coie was hired by the lender for Whispering Pines Apartments, 1357 Helena Street, to investigate the reported takeover and claims the gang has been extorting 'rents' from people they moved into vacant units.
Former US attorney T. Markus Funk wrote: 'The evidence we have reviewed indicates that gang members are engaging in flagrant trespass violations, assaults and battery, human trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, unlawful firearms possession, extortion, and other criminal activities, often targeting vulnerable Venezuelan and other immigrant populations.'
The report, issued in August, says that 'Tren de Aragua has threatened to kill (and, in certain instances, has apparently actively attempted to kill) members of Whispering Pines management.'
The gang's activities reported escalated this year, with a housekeeper claiming in April 2024 that a two individuals 'went into an apartment, came out with large firearms, and were coming to kill [the property manager].
Elsewhere, from the heartland to major cities like New York and Chicago, the gang has been blamed for sex trafficking, drug smuggling and police shootings as well as the exploitation of migrants.
The size of the gang and the extent to which its actions are coordinated across state lines and with leaders believed to be outside the US are unclear.
