The Colorado apartment complex overrun by Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua and that came to represent the transnational crime syndicate’s growing footprint in the U.S. was ordered to close by a judge due to it being an “imminent threat to public safety.”

Aurora Judge Shawn Day granted the emergency order Monday to shut down the Edge of Lowry apartments where Tren de Aragua gangsters have been charged with kidnapping and torturing two residents as well as going door-to-door in an armed takeover of the building.

Prosecutors are pursuing criminal negligence charges against the property owner, Five Dallas Partners LLC, which officials accuse of letting the 60-unit complex become “an epicenter for unmitigated violent crimes and property crimes.”

Attorneys for Five Dallas Partners filed a motion to withdraw from the criminal negligence case, but Aurora City Attorney Peter Schulte accused the group of stalling.

“We are not in the business of stalling,” said Bud Slatkin, an attorney for the property owner, according to The Denver Post. “We are in the business of protecting these residents and being good citizens of the city of Aurora.”

Mr. Schulte said authorities want to close the complex by mid-February. The city said it’s working with Arapahoe County and other community partners to relocate the residents, many of whom are migrants themselves.

The complex became a pivotal topic on the presidential campaign last fall when surveillance video showed a horde of heavily armed Tren de Aragua members roving the hallways to find empty units to rent out or use for their prostitution ring. 

The video prompted President-elect Donald Trump to say at his lone debate with Vice President Kamala Harris that he would “liberate Aurora.”

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, a Republican, shot back at the incoming president by saying Mr. Trump mischaracterized how much of a gang presence was in the city. 

But last week, Mr. Coffman penned an op-ed in local newspapers taking aim at Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, a Democrat, whom he accused of contracting two nonprofits to move problematic migrants into his suburban community.

“Aurora has suffered from a national embarrassment that has harmed the image of our city in a way that could have lasting economic consequences,” Mr. Coffman wrote in The Denver Gazette. “As the mayor of Aurora, I’m asking that Mayor Mike Johnston be transparent and tell the truth about what he did.”

Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said over a dozen members of Tren de Aragua are suspected of torturing a man and woman last month by holding them against their will and abusing the pair.

“They were pistol-whipped, they were beaten, they were terrorized,” he said. “The fact that one human could treat another human like this is appalling.”

Sixteen people were arrested in connection to the home invasion and kidnapping of the man and woman.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.