Three Venezuelan men will spend the next two decades in federal prison for a Denver kidnapping and torture plot directed by the Tren de Aragua gang.
Darwin Veliz-Gonzalez, Jefferson Balza-Delfin and Yender Enrique Campos-Malave, all Venezuelan nationals, received 20-year sentences Monday for holding their roommate captive, abusing him for days and ultimately severing his finger when his family refused to pay ransom, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announced. A fourth defendant’s sentencing was postponed.
The victim had been renting a room in the South Hazel Court home when his roommates discovered that he and his father were police officers in Venezuela, prosecutors said. That revelation transformed the residence into what authorities described as a torture chamber, with the men taking their captive’s law enforcement background as the pretext for a brutal extortion scheme.
They bound him with rope and held him for several days without food and with very little water. During that captivity, the men filmed themselves strangling him with a rope until he nearly lost consciousness, repeatedly submerging his head in a bucket of water for 30 seconds or longer, threatening him with a gun and pistol-whipping him.
The recordings were sent to his wife to demand money from his family in Venezuela and were also shared with international TdA leaders, whom the captors consulted about the kidnapping, prosecutors said. When the family did not pay, one gang leader explicitly suggested cutting off a finger to pressure them into sending money.
The victim overheard his captors discussing the plan before Balza-Delfin used pliers to sever his right pinky finger, an act the men also filmed, according to prosecutors.
Denver police came to the home on Oct. 16, 2024, after receiving a welfare call reporting that someone had been kidnapped there. Officers conducted a limited visual search but found no one in distress because the victim, who was still inside, was too afraid to make himself known. After the police visit, three of the men fled the residence, giving the victim an opportunity to escape.
He walked into a Denver police station the next morning, reported the kidnapping and assault and showed officers his missing finger.
US Attorney Peter McNeilly tied the case directly to the broader threat posed by the Venezuelan gang in Colorado. “This is what Tren de Aragua was doing in our community,” he said. “Colorado is safer with these violent criminals in federal prison for the next 20 years, and we will continue to pursue every member of Tren de Aragua until there are no more left in our state.”
Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas praised the victim for coming forward despite his circumstances. “I applaud the victim of this heinous crime, and all victims, regardless of immigration status, for reporting criminal behaviors and helping us arrest those who prey on our community members,” Thomas said.
The FBI’s Denver Field Office and Denver police investigated the case. FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Amanda Koldjeski cited it as part of the bureau’s efforts to dismantle the gang through its Violent Criminal Enterprise Task Force.
“The FBI, alongside our local, state, federal, and international partners, is working to disrupt and dismantle TdA through intelligence-driven investigations like this from our Violent Criminal Enterprise Task Force,” Koldjeski said.
A 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. He is also accused of participating in a broader TdA criminal operation involving robbery, extortion, kidnapping, money laundering and drug crimes between May 2024 and approximately March 2025.
