The Colorado Springs Gazette

Springs Police: Raided club yielded over 130 calls to 911

BY O’DELL ISAAC AND NATASHA LYNN

Over a three-year period, Colorado Springs police received nearly 140 emergency calls to the address of the “underground” nightclub that was the site of a massive federal raid early Sunday.

According to call records provided to The Gazette, 138 calls were made to 911 since March 2022 about the property at 296 S. Academy Blvd. Records show a variety of complaints — including disturbances, vehicle theft, suspicious persons/vehicles and trespassing. Four of the calls were for suspected drug activity.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday that the Trump administration has been monitoring the club after learning that 170 calls to 911 had been made over the past several years.

“Wouldn’t you think that would’ve been a red flag? Nothing happened. Guns, shootings, (aggravated) batteries, nothing happened,” she told Fox News.

The Gazette found one “shots fired” call in its review Monday of the 138 call sheets on 911 to Colorado Springs police.

More than 300 law enforcement officers from at least 10 agencies raided the property Sunday. They detained 114 people, including active-duty military members and individuals in the U.S. illegally, officials said. On Monday, a social media post from the DEA showed a busload of 60 people who had been detained in the raid.

“This bus alone was filled to capacity with 60 men — all in the U.S. illegally … at the illegal underground nightclub,” the post read. “Deportation? Likely.”

The Colorado Springs Police Department and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the Dea-led operation, officials said. An unspecified quantity of drugs and weapons were found during the raid. The property had been under investigation for months, and local law enforcement was informed of the coming raid weeks in advance, according to law enforcement officials.

Fort Carson officials confirmed Monday that several of its active-duty service members were present at the club at the time of the raid. The service members were either patrons of the club or moonlighting as armed security, DEA officials said.

“Illegal activities of any kind do not represent our military values,” Fort Carson officials stated in an email. “We will continue to work in coordination with our federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to ensure our community is safe.”

Mike Moon, who owns the property, told The Gazette that he had no idea an underground nightclub had been operating there. Moon said he rents the space out for parties, weddings and events, and that under the terms of the lease, alcohol is not allowed to be served.

“Every time I’ve gone in there with a contractor it was set up for a wedding,” he said. “But Sunday morning it looked like a bar in there with couches and bar tables.”

The current lessee, Virginia Thorne, operates the event space through the name Warike Events, LLC. Thorne has held the lease for about four months.

Attempts to contact Warike Events on Monday were unsuccessful.

Moon, who also owns the Luna Market grocery store just across the parking lot from the raid location, said he was shocked to learn that the current leaseholders allowed the alleged illegal activity.

“I’ve never even seen a lot of trash in the parking lot to even suspect that anything like an after-hours nightclub is going on,” Moon said. “So, it’s pretty shocking.”

Moon said he learned about the raid from an employee trying to get to the Luna Market store.

“I got a call from (an employee) around 6:45 a.m. saying she couldn’t get to work to open up because the streets were blocked off by police,” Moon said.

He said some of the people who arrived later Sunday morning to pick up vehicles in the parking lot told Moon the parties happen regularly, believed to be hosted by a Thorne family member , at different spots around the city from 2-6 a.m.

“People told me the guy holds these parties somewhere different every couple weeks and it’s found out about by word of mouth,” Moon said.

Moon said he swept up three bags of white powder and multiple broken alcohol bottles later that morning, all of which are against the rules of the contract.

When asked about the 911 calls, Moon said that some of them were in response to homeless people camping out, starting fires and using drugs in the parking lot area in front of his business. Occasionally they would also enter his store and either steal merchandise or cause a disturbance, he said.

“It was bad in 2022,” Moon told The Gazette. “In the last year it’s gotten a little better.”

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2025-04-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

2025-04-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.gazette.com/article/281492167183848

The Gazette, Colorado Springs