A billionaire Donald Trump donor stands behind a sign on the Wyoming-Colorado border that reads, “Venezuela Ahead, BE READY.”
Drivers entering Colorado from Wyoming on I-25 encounter the Venezuelan flag sign and warning ahead of the November presidential election.
The poster references Aurora reports about 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 says: “Paid for by Clipper Properties LLC, Tim Mellon, member.”
Mellon, heir to a banking fortune worth about $14.1 billion, is one of Trump’s biggest supporters. USA today reported. His family founded Mellon Bank in the 19th century and were major investors in Gulf Oil.
Drivers entering Colorado from Wyoming on I-25 encounter the Venezuelan flag sign and warning ahead of the November presidential election.
Tim Mellon, heir to a banking fortune worth about $14.1 billion, is one of Trump’s biggest supporters. Mellon is pictured in 1981.
The reclusive billionaire, 82, has donated $75 million to Trump’s campaign and also contributed $25 million to Robert Kennedy Jr.’s failed independent bid.
He has donated a total of $227 million to political campaigns, primarily to Republicans.
Mellon, who reportedly resides in Wyoming, has been accused of racism for statements he made in his memoir, panam.captain.
He wrote in the book: “Black people, despite the heroic efforts of the ‘Establishment’ to right the wrongs of the past, became even more belligerent and unwilling to collaborate to improve their situation.”
Mellon’s nephew, John W. Warner IV, previously told Vanity Fair that the Trump donor is “the most private Mellon there is.”
The controversial sign also has the backing of the former Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives through his Clipper Properties LLC.
Many of the arrests stem from violent activity at the properties, particularly at the Whispering Pines Apartments, whose owner claimed the gang took over the property late last year and began charging “rent” from tenants.
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Councilwoman and Public Safety Chair Danielle Jurinsky denied that the Aragua Train has “taken over” the city and say there are only problems at a few properties.
“The TdA has not ‘taken’ the city,” he said in a statement.
‘The exaggerated claims pushed by social media and through certain news organizations are simply not true. Once again, TdA’s presence in Aurora is limited to specific properties, all of which the city has been addressing in various ways for months.’
Attention to the Aragua Train jumped after security camera images appeared on social media showing a group of heavily armed men brazenly entering an apartment in Aurora.
That led Trump to promise to “liberate Aurora” from the Venezuelans who he falsely claimed were “taking over the entire city.”
Police have called the reports exaggerated but still acknowledged they are investigating 10 gang members for their involvement in several crimes, including a homicide in July.
Aurora police have identified the Tren de Aragua gangsters arrested in connection with their alleged 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 another person 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 sunglasses from designer Gucci in Boulder and has a criminal record in several states, including for auto theft and vehicular assault.
Law firm Perkins Coie was hired by the lender of Whispering Pines Apartments, 1357 Helena Street, to investigate the reported acquisition and claims the gang has been extorting “rent” from people they moved into empty units.
Former U.S. Attorney T. Markus Funk wrote: “The evidence we have reviewed indicates that gang members are engaging in flagrant violations of criminal trespass, assault and battery, human trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, illegal possession of firearms , extortion and other criminal activities, often targeting vulnerable populations of Venezuelan immigrants and other populations.’
The report, released in August, says that “Tren de Aragua has threatened to kill (and, in certain cases, apparently actively attempted to kill) members of the Whispering Pines leadership.”
The gang’s activities intensified this year, with a housekeeper claiming in April 2024 that two individuals “entered an apartment, came out with large firearms, and were coming to kill (the property manager).”
Elsewhere, from the heart of the country 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 immigrants.
It is unclear the size of the gang and the degree to which its actions are coordinated across state lines and with leaders believed to be outside the United States.
