The owner of a group of Aurora, Colorado apartment buildings says the Tren de Aragua Venezuelan gang is controlling its properties and claims that local police and the FBI are doing nothing to help the situation.
"Gangs have taken control of several of our properties in Aurora, Colorado," Brooklyn-based CBZ Management said on X, reports The New York Post on Monday. "In an attempt to discredit this fact for political purposes and avoid governmental accountability, some have spread false information about our situation."
The company also posted a photo of an employee that it said was beaten up by gang members last November after he would not let them stay in a vacant apartment they had taken over.
"He had gone to inspect a recently vacated three-bedroom apartment (a rare occurrence for such a large unit) only to find a group of men already inside," CBZ posted. "When he refused their $500 bribe to overlook the situation, they brutally attacked him. (This photo was taken shortly after he escaped, just before being admitted to the hospital. The video footage comes from one of our security cameras, capturing part of the assault.)"
CBZ also posted several surveillance videos from its apartment buildings and said that because of the crime and threats, it had to pull its workers from the apartment complexes in Aurora, a 390,000-population suburb of Denver.
"Despite clear evidence, many still deny the reality of the situation, sometimes using us as scapegoats," the company wrote. "We will continue to counter falsehoods with simple facts and evidence. Yes, gangs did take control of our apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado, and the government did nothing. That is the real story."
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman has accused former President Donald Trump, who has made the Venezuelan gang situation part of his argument about illegal immigration, of having "grossly exaggerated" the situation.
The company bought the buildings in 2019 and has a history of local citations in the buildings dating to 2020 before the Tren de Aragua gang arrived in Aurora, reports Denver7.
The violations spanned from rodent infestations to ceiling damage, and Coffman has labeled CBZ as "slumlords."
Zev Baumgarten, named as CBZ's owner in court documents, said he would either sell or give up one of the apartment complexes after legal proceedings against him and the company, reports the Denver Gazette.
But CBZ says the city is covering up the Venezuelan gang's presence and accused it of bringing "code violations" to shift blame. It also claims that it got a "perfect inspection in 2022 and 2023," and that the violations that were not dealt with happened after the gangs took over and it removed its staff workers "for their safety."
Residents and local officials said the Tren de Aragua's presence is clear in the buildings, whether or not any violations have been handled.
CBZ says it renovated almost all units in the Edge at Lowry apartments, where viral footage of six armed people has become a political talking point.
Meanwhile, CBZ says gang members, after beating up the employee, continued taking over vacated units including one where the tenant returned from a vacation to find that the gang had taken over his apartment.
Then the gang started moving migrants into the units, said CBZ. The tenants were claiming to pay rent, but the company said they were paying the gang.