A drag-wearing Tren de Aragua gangbanger was arrested and released no fewer than four times before he went on a rampage in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado — and now he’s facing brutal new charges.
Niefred Serpa-Acosta, 20, was previously caught on camera breaking into an apartment with other gang members — in a viral attack that ended with a fatal shooting just weeks after ICE inexplicably freed him in July, despite a deportation order, according to authorities.
This week, he was charged — along with eight other members of the violent Venezuelan prison gang — with kidnapping and torturing a couple at an Aurora, Colorado, apartment complex in December, ABC7 Denver reported.
Acosta was finally when cops searching for suspects in that case found him trying to pass as a woman in a wig and women’s knit hat.
The gangbangers face a range of charges including second-degree kidnapping, first-degree assault, aggravated robbery, second-degree burglary, extortion and menacing.
Three of the suspects are still on the lam.
Authorities’ failure to stop Acosta began in December 2022 when he was caught crossing the border illegally into El Paso, Texas — a known hub for Tren de Aragua.
He agreed to be deported into Mexico, but never was — and was instead allowed to go free in the US.
His next encounter with cops came with an arrest in the Denver suburb of Lakewood in June 2023 when he was busted for theft.
He was released, only to be nabbed for a second time in Fort Collins in April 2024 and let go again.
After his third arrest, for resisting an officer, obstructing police and larceny in another Denver suburb, ICE took him into custody.
A timeline of failures to stop a gang member
December 2022:
- Border agents catch Acosta crossing the border illegally into El Paso, Texas. Acosta agrees to being deported back Mexico
- He is not removed, however, and he is released into the US “on his own recognizance”
June 23, 2023:
- Cops in Lakewood, Colorado arrest Acosta for theft
April 23, 2024:
- Acosta is arrested for a second time in Fort Collins, Colorado — again for theft
May 16, 2024:
- Acosta is arrested for a third time — by cops in Castle Rock, Colorado, for resisting an officer, obstructing police and larceny
May 17, 2024:
- ICE takes him into custody. Acosta admits to ICE that he’s a member of Tren de Aragua, with the tattoos to prove it
May 29, 2024
- An immigration judge orders Acosta to be deported
July 17, 2024
- ICE releases Acosta, despite his removal order; the agency has not explained why
August 2024
- Acosta is seen in a viral video forcing his way into an apartment in Aurora with fellow TdA gang members. A deadly shooting takes place at the complex minutes later
Dec. 17, 2024
- Acosta is arrested in an Aurora apartment building while dressed as a woman as cops searched for suspects who kidnapped and tortured two residents
The Post previously reported that he admitted he was a member of Tren de Aragua — the gang that has terrorized New York City and has been found in at least 18 states — and he showed off the tattoos to prove it, according to law enforcement sources.
A judge ordered him deported, but ICE released him instead, and has not responded to questions about why it did so.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment again on Tuesday.
One month after he was allowed to go free by the feds, he was caught on video with a group of fellow gangbangers storming into a unit at The Edge at Lowry apartments with five other men — one armed with a rifle.
That footage became a national symbol illustrating the scourge of Tren de Aragua in Aurora.
Minutes later, the group allegedly carried out a fatal shooting, according to CBS Denver.
Then, last month, Acosta, along with a group of fellow gangbangers, allegedly abducted a couple from their apartment at The Edge and forced them into a nearby unit at the same complex before tying them up, pistol-whipping and beating them, cops said.
During the kidnapping, some of the gangbangers returned to the couple’s home to burglarize it.
The couple was eventually let go by their captors after they promised not to call the cops.
A judge has since ordered the shutdown of The Edge apartment complex for posing an “imminent threat” to the public after the recent spate of violence.
Acosta is back in ICE custody in Denver.