Colorado Law Firm Report Claims Venezuelan Gang Has “Stranglehold” on Apartments, Takeover Began in 2023

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.

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“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.

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The firm says it represents the lender for Whispering Pines Apartments, 1357 Helena Street, one of several  Aurora apartment buildings allegedly controlled by the Tren de Aragua gang. The law firm says it interviewed witnesses and reviewed video from the Whispering Pines for its investigation.

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“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 report.

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The property manager told the law firm that he started his job in January 2024, but that TdA had already been establishing a presence at the apartments before his employment. In November 2023, the report states a consultant for the property management company was “so severely beaten and stomped by gang members that he had to go to the hospital.”  The report says the beating was unprovoked.

“The gang activity at Whispering Pines escalated in 2024,” according to the document obtained by CBS News Colorado. 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).” {snip}

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In June, the report says suspected gang members approached the property manager and offered to help the manager “if he agreed to pay the gang 50% of everything the property management company collected in rent.”

The investigators who authored the report called this an “organized crime tactic.” They said gang members then said they were taking over vacant units at Whispering Pines and would start collecting rent from tenants. “This is our business plan,” one gang member told a housekeeper. “If he (property manager) doesn’t like it, we’ll fill him with bullets.”

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“The property manager further shared that TdA now uses the formally vacant units to host “parties” where they “serve drugs and child prostitution.” The property manager apparently told the law firm investigators that “minors are a good source of money.”

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