Bombshell report reveals Venezuelan gang has had Aurora complex in a 'stranglehold' for over a year

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.'

Former US attorney T. Markus Funk wrote: '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.'

The Whispering Pines Apartments has 54 apartments with rents ranging from $1450 to $2000 per month.

Four alleged Tren de Aragua members have been arrested in Aurora in connection to an attempted  murder in July.

ICE officials told Fox News all four are undocumented immigrants who were detained and released after crossing the Texas border.

However, Aurora police has claimed the gang has not taken over any buildings, and city officials indicate the buildings, along with two other apartment complexes, were run down because of neglect by the property manager, CBZ Management.

In a visit to the apartments where the armed men were filmed, interim Aurora police chief Heather Morris said gang members had not taken over and weren’t collecting rent. The remarks came after Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said that 'criminal elements' had taken over some unspecified buildings and were extorting residents. 

Aurora Police agent Matthew Longshore reiterated Thursday in an email to The Associated Press that the agency has confirmed residents are not paying rent to gang members, but they found apartment managers are no longer sending representatives to the complex.

The City of Aurora is already taking legal action against Zev Baumgarten with CBZ for 'years of neglecting properties and numerous code violations' after another building he managed in Aurora was shut down as uninhabitable. Its residents were evicted in mid-August. Trials for Baumgarten that had been scheduled for August and September have been delayed for at least six months.

Among the nearly 1 million Venezuelan migrants who entered the U.S. in recent years were suspected gang members tied to police shootings, human trafficking and other crimes — yet there’s no evidence that the gang has set up an organizational structure in the U.S., Jeremy McDermott, the Colombia-based co-director of InSight Crime, told the AP this summer. He published a recent report on Tren de Aragua’s expansion.

Many of the immigrants from Venezuela and other Latin American countries who live in the Aurora complex say there are no gangs there, and they are being unfairly painted as criminals.

They pinned blame on New York-based CBZ Management for refusing to take care of bedbugs, rodents and constant water leaks despite monthly rent costing $1,200 or more. Residents fear they could be evicted, but the city said Wednesday there were no immediate plans to pursue that option.

'The only criminal here is the owner of the building,' Moises Didenot, who is from Venezuela, said Tuesday through a translator at a news conference in a dusty courtyard at the complex.

He showed reporters some mice he recently caught on sticky traps in the basement apartment he shares with his wife and 11-year-old daughter. Only two of the burners on their stove work, their ceiling fan is missing a blade and as soon as they clean their bathtub, mold quickly creeps back, he said.