By Blake Wolf, OAN Staff
Friday, September 6, 2024 5:33 PM
Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang, which made headlines after taking over an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado, reportedly achieved “total control” for the first time late last year.
advertisement
A Denver law firm, which asked not to be named, was tasked with investigating foreign criminal group activity in Aurora and claims to have found evidence of gang activity at Whispering Pines Apartments in late 2023. CBS News.
The report said Tren de Aragua was involved in acts of violence, extortion, child sex trafficking and death threats.
The findings were sent to Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, City Manager Jason Batchelor and the interim police chief.
“The evidence we reviewed indicates that gang members have engaged in trespass, assault, human trafficking, sexual abuse of minors, illegal firearms possession, extortion, and other criminal activity, often targeting vulnerable Venezuelan and other migrants,” former U.S. Attorney T. Marcus Funk wrote.
“I've never seen anything like Tren de Aragua's acquisition of Whispering Pines in my career,” the property manager for the complex that runs Whispering Pines said in an interview with the company.
The manager also said that the gang members had made “death threats” after he was late with rent payments, and that the gang members had reportedly been collecting “rent” from apartment residents, some of whom had stabbed residents who refused to pay after realizing they were being scammed.
“Tren de Aragua threatened to kill me. [and has allegedly attempted to kill] The report goes on to say, “members of Whispering Pines' management team.”
Additionally, property managers reported that gang members offered them a compromise if they agreed to give the gang 50 percent of the rent they collected from residents.
The property manager started work in January 2024, by which point the gang was already active within the estate. The report added that in November 2023, a consultant for the property management company was “severely beaten and stomped by gang members so badly that he had to go to hospital.”
“This is our business plan,” one of the Tren de Aragua members reportedly told the housekeeper. “If he [property manager] If you don't like it, I'll shoot you to death.”
“The brazen and overt nature of this act further demonstrates the sense of security and control the suspected gang members have had taking over the property, consistent with them not fearing law enforcement from the property management company,” the report added.
“The property manager further alleged that the TdA (gang) was using the previously vacant rooms as a venue for 'party' where they 'offered drugs and child prostitution.'”
A city of Aurora spokesman said the city received the report and “immediately incorporated it into our ongoing investigation.”
“The information and allegations in the letter underscore why APD (and other law enforcement agencies) have formed a special task force to investigate violent crimes affecting immigrant and other communities in the Denver metropolitan area,” a city spokesperson wrote.
Stay up to date! Receive the latest news directly in your email for free. Sign up here: https://www.oann.com/alerts
Advertisement below
Please share this post!
