Federal prosecutors say three Venezuelan nationals connected to Tren de Aragua have been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for kidnapping, torturing, and severing the finger of a Venezuelan man with a pair of pliers at a home in Denver in 2024.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado, four defendants kidnapped and tortured the man after learning that he and his father had been police officers in Venezuela. Prosecutors said two of the defendants were roommates with the victim.
During a news conference on Monday, attorneys detailed the abuse that happened in October 2024. Federal prosecutors said the group of men tied the victim up with rope and held him without food and very little water for several days. Authorities said the four defendants filmed themselves torturing the victim by strangling him with a rope until he nearly lost consciousness, repeatedly holding his head in a bucket of water for 30 seconds or more, threatening him with a firearm, and pistol whipping him…