A Venezuelan gang took over an apartment Complex in Colorado more than a year ago, according to a Denver law firm’s report.
The Tren de Aragua, a criminal group from Venezuela, has had a ‘stranglehold’ on the Whispering Pines Apartments in Aurora since late 2023, the law firm Perkins Coie claimed in a letter to Aurora officials.
The firm found that the gang has engaged in assaults, threats of murder, extortion and even child prostitution, as reported by CBS News Colorado.
The law firm was hired by the lender for Whispering Pines Apartments, 1357 Helena Street, to investigate the reported takeover and claims the gang has been extorting ‘rents’ from people they moved into vacant units.
The vacant units have reportedly been used to host ‘parties’ where the gang provides ‘drug and child prostitution,’ according to the apartments’ manager, who added that ‘minors are a good source of money.’
The Aurora Police Department has denied claims that the complex has been overrun by gangsters.
However, the report, issued in August, says that ‘Tren de Aragua has threatened to kill (and, in certain instances, has apparently actively attempted to kill) members of Whispering Pines management.’
In November, 2023, a consultant for the complex’s management company was so allegedly severely beaten and stomped by gang members that he had to go to the hospital.
The gang’s activities reported escalated this year, with a housekeeper claiming in April 2024 that a two individuals ‘went into an apartment, came out with large firearms, and were coming to kill [the property manager].’
The property manager said the two individuals were gang members and arrested as they were coming to kill him.’
The manager also claimed ‘gang members allegedly stabbed a Whispering Pines resident for refusing to pay “rent” to the gang.’
He told the law firm that in June the gangsters offered to help him if he paid them 50 percent of the funds collected in rents.
A housekeeper reported that a gang member told her: ‘This is our business plan… If he [property manager] doesn’t like it, we’ll fill him with bullets.’
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