Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members threatened to kill the property managers at the Whispering Pines apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, according to a lawsuit filed by a law firm that represents the lender on the property.
“Tren de Aragua has threatened to kill (and, in certain instances, has apparently actively attempted to kill) members of Whispering Pines management…” according to the lawsuit obtained by CBS News.
The property manager with 15 years of experience in the businesses told investigators, “He had never seen anything remotely like the Tren de Aragua takeover of Whispering Pines in his entire career.”
“The gang activity at Whispering Pines escalated in 2024,” according to the document obtained by CBS News Colorado.
According to the document, in April 2024, a housekeeper called the property manager “informing him that two individuals at the property went into an apartment, came out with large firearms, and were coming to kill him (the property manager).”
Two TdA gang members were arrested as they were coming to kill the property manager.
One tenant at Whispering Pines was stabbed by the gang members for refusing to pay “rent” to them.
The gang members told a housekeeper, “This is our business plan,” and if the property manager doesn’t like it, “we’ll fill him with bullets.”
The property manager told investigators that the TdA gang members host “parties” in the vacant units where they “serve drugs and child prostitution.”
CBS News reported:
A Denver law firm, hired to look into an alleged gang takeover of an Aurora apartment building, says they found the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang began taking over the Whispering Pines Apartments in late 2023. Since then, the gang has engaged in violent assaults, threats of murder, extortion, strongarm tactics, and child prostitution as they have exerted a “stranglehold” on the Aurora apartment complex. That’s according to a letter sent to Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, Aurora City Manager Jason Batchelor, and the interim police chief that was obtained by CBS News Colorado.
Each page of the nine-page report was labeled “CONFIDENTIAL TREATMENT REQUESTED.” The Perkins Coie law firm shared its findings on Aug. 9 with Aurora’s top administrators.
“The evidence we have reviewed indicates that gang members are engaging in flagrant trespass violations, assaults and battery, human trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, unlawful firearms possession, extortion, and other criminal activities, often targeting vulnerable Venezuelan and other immigrant populations,” wrote T. Markus Funk, a former U.S. Attorney.
More on this story from CBS News:
