What is the history of the Colorado Springs building raided by the DEA?

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - KRDO13 Investigates is digging into the history of the building at 296 S Academy Blvd, which the DEA and other federal agents raided this weekend.

Broken glass and boarded-up windows are all that's left behind at the now-shut-down illegal nightclub. However, as KRDO13 Investigates learned, this wasn't the first time law enforcement came to the S Academy building.

KRDO13 Investigates obtained lease documents from the owner of the building.

The documents show a woman named Virginia Thorne leased the property for four months, ending at the end of April.

When KRDO13 Investigates went to the listed address for answers, the woman who answered the door said Virginia Thorne didn't live at the residence, although her car was parked out front. Then the woman said she didn't speak English.

The owner of the building, Mike Moon, said that he leased the suite as an event space.

The business on the lease, Warike Events LLC, ran the Warike Latin Club, which KRDO13 Investigates found started promoting events at the raided location on Facebook in February. 

The Colorado Springs Police Department said they've been called out to the location for criminal activity five separate times this year.

KRDO13 Investigates uncovered that it's not the first time the building has been at the center of criminal controversy.

Back in 2023, Colorado Springs police came to AC Expo, a storefront in the same building, to seize illegal gambling machines.

We asked the property owner about the criminal activity back in 2023.

Moon told us he was unaware that the illegal gambling was going on and welcomed police to seize the illegal machines in 2023 to deal with the problem, and this weekend during the illegal nightclub raids. 

CSPD provided KRDO13 Investigates with the following list of calls for service at this location since March of 2022: