Does a video on Instagram show Hells Angels going to Aurora, Colorado, to fight members of a Venezuelan gang after gang-related violence was reported in August 2024? No, that's not true: The video was first posted to TikTok on July 7, 2024, more than a month before local media reported gang violence in Aurora. Elements in the video and on the original poster's TikTok account suggest that the clip was recorded during a motorcycle parade in São Paulo, Brazil.
A version of the claim appeared in a post on Instagram on September 1, 2024, (archived here) with a text overlay that read:
HELL ANGELS ARE ON THE WAY TO AURORA, COLORADO TO SAVE THE CITY AFTER GANGS FROM VENEZUELA TOOK OVER APARTMENTS AND DESTROYED PLACES THERE!
A caption with the post read:
I am just the messenger 🎯 If its True A lot of bikers are veterans 🎯
Here is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken Mon Sept 2 09:37:53 2024 UTC)
The motorcycle video on the left above included a text overlay of a TikTok user's profile (archived here). Lead Stories found that the account had initially posed the video on July 7, 2024, nearly two months before local media outlets broke the Aurora gang story. The original poster did not mention Hells Angels or Aurora, Colorado, in the video caption section. Rather, overlaid on the video was "#bondepelavida."
The original poster also shared a photo to TikTok on July 6, 2024, (archived here) that showed four people standing in front of a sign that included text reading "Bonde Pela Vida" and what appeared to be "São Paulo," presumably in Brazil.
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken Mon Sept 2 19:47:39 2024 UTC)
Bonde Pela Vida is an event described (archived here) on its website as being hosted by Brazil's largest motorcycle club, Insanos MC. It was held July 5-7, 2024, in São Paulo to raise awareness for suicide prevention. An estimated 4,000 motorcycles were at the event, according to a Google translation of the website from Portuguese to English.
Similar photos and videos were shared on the club's Instagram, Facebook and YouTube accounts in late August 2024.
Plus, at the start of the video, police cars are shown driving down the side of the road, with logos on the hoods and windshields that read "policia," Portuguese for police. A reverse image search (archived here) of the police vehicles in the clip returned several results suggesting the cars may belong to the São Paulo State Highway Police.
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken Mon Sept 2 18:37:43 2024 UTC)
The video on Instagram came after local media outlets had reported (archived here) on August 28, 2024, violence affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) having occurred (archived here) at an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado.
In a post shared on Facebook on August 28, 2024, (archived here) the Aurora Police Department confirmed that it was aware of TdA operating in Aurora but believed incidents to be isolated. The department also clarified (archived here) in a video in a post to X on August 31, 2024, that "gang members are not taking over" the complex.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about the Hells Angels can be found here.
