"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)." The individuals were apparently past due on rent. The property manager said, "that the two individuals were arrested as they were coming to kill him." The report says the men, who were armed with "large firearms," were gang members.
The property manager went on to say that "gang members allegedly stabbed a Whispering Pines resident for refusing to pay "rent" to the gang. Since then, the property has recorded footage of gang members knocking on doors and, without authorization or any other justification, attempting to collect rent from the tenants of Whispering Pines..." 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."
Following that incident, the report says video footage shows TDA gang members violently breaking into vacant apartments, kicking doors open, and moving Venezuelan immigrants into the empty apartments. "This conduct's brazen and public nature further exhibits the suspected gang members' sense of comfort and control consistent with their taking over the property and not fearing the law enforcement of the property management." Investigators concluded that gang members have been extorting "rents" from residents they moved into vacant units.
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