A Colorado management company has shared brutal surveillance footage
and a photo of a bloodied employee to illustrate its ongoing problem
with a violent Venezuelan migrant gang.
Brooklyn-based CBZ Management, which operates 11 complexes in Colorado,
has said that members of Tren de Aragua commandeered entire apartment buildings in Aurora by threatening its employees and tried to extort
the company for a cut of rent money in exchange for their continued
operation of the properties.
One of the company's buildings made national headlines earlier this
year after surveillance footage showed a heavily-armed group of men, allegedly members of the Venezuelan prison gang, making their way
through The Edge at Lowry apartments and speaking in Spanish.
The most recent footage shows one of CBZ's representatives being
assaulted after he refused to accept a bribe at the Whispering Pines
Complex at the end of 2023, the company told Fox 31.
The company wrote on X that the employee found a group of male
squatters in a recently vacated apartment and would not accept $500 to "overlook the situation."
Read On The Fox News App
The man was beaten so severely that he had to be treated at a hospital,
the company said.
"I think they were trying to kill me. I don’t know how I got out, but I
got out," that representative, whose bloodied photograph was shown by
the management company on X, told Fox 31.
After the attack, the company said, the employee began to receive
threats via text message that included his home address and spouse's
name.
A police report from the incident obtained from the 18th Judicial
District Court by Denver 7 shows that one of the company's property
managers was assaulted by documented Tren de Aragua member Yoendry
Vilchez Medina-Jose in November 2023. It was not immediately clear if
that was the same incident.
Venezuelan Tren De Aragua Gang Recruiting Kids From Texas Middle
Schools
After the incident, the company said its representatives met with
members of the FBI. The agency allegedly confirmed that members of Tren
de Aragua were behind the text messages and the building takeovers but
that the issue was a "blip on the radar" due to the Venezuelan gang's
growing national presence.
The FBI could not immediately be reached for comment.
CBZ also said that the gangs took over a tenant's apartment while on vacation, forcing the tenant to find a new place to live when he
returned home.
"Gangs have taken control of several of our properties in Aurora,
Colorado," the company wrote in a thread on X last week. "In an attempt
to discredit this fact for political purposes and avoid governmental accountability, some have spread false information about our
situation."
The firm said that it has had to pull its workers back from its
apartment complexes in Aurora.
Tren De Aragua Gang Member, Illegal Venezuelan Migrant, Arrest In
Houston
"Despite clear evidence, many still deny the reality of the situation, sometimes using us as scapegoats. That’s why we are no longer staying silent," 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."
The Aurora Police Department told Denver 7 that it has "not yet
obtained evidence of a gang takeover at any CBZ properties."
"We’ve acknowledged it’s likely gang members have and/or are residing
at CBZ properties, but as you know from experience you could say the
same about a lot of different gangs and a lot of different properties throughout the metro area," a representative told the outlet.
Likewise, a spokesperson for Aurora told the New York Post that the
company's claims were "exaggerations."
Young Migrants Tied To 'Shocking' Increase In Gang-led Crime In Nyc's
Time Square, Says Nypd
"These delinquent property owners, managers and/or ‘investors’ conveniently fail to acknowledge that their own bank lenders took them
to court in the last few weeks where a judge ordered some of their problematic properties into receivership," the spokesperson said. "That
means a judge has given the legal authority to a third-party receiver
to actually manage the properties, and who the property owners will be
forced to compensate."
Last Friday, former President Donald Trump visited Aurora and linked
the alleged gang problems in the city to the Biden-Harris
administration's border policies.
According to Denver 7, CBZ Management has a history of citations dating
back to 2020, with violations ranging from mice infestations to dozens
of illegally parked cars to ceiling damage. Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman characterized the management company as "slumlords," KDVR reported.
"It’s a little late to play the Venezuelan gang card," Coffman said. "Certainly, there are other parts of the city that we’re looking at,
that we’re concerned about that. But the problems in this building certainly precede any problems with Venezuelan gangs."
Click To Get The Fox News App
CBZ Management said that the city "drummed up 'code violations'" to
cover up the presence of the foreign gang, according to its posts on X.
The company said it "received a perfect inspection in 2022 and 2023,"
and that any violations have been "dealt with."
"The only violations that weren’t dealt with were when the gangs took
over and we didn’t want our 6 on-site staff working there — for their safety," the company said.
Media and government officials are downplaying the impact of Venezuelan
gangs in Aurora, one woman who moved out of her apartment earlier this
year due to increasing violence told Fox News Digital.
"I feel like it's a slap in the face," Cindy Romero said. "How many
gangs is OK to have in Aurora? How many properties is OK to take over?
How many people, who are citizens paying their bills, is it OK to
displace?"
https://www.foxnews.com/us/colorado-video-shows-tren-de-aragua-gang- beating-apartment-complex-worker-extortion-bid-company-says
| Sysop: | Keyop |
|---|---|
| Location: | Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK |
| Users: | 512 |
| Nodes: | 16 (2 / 14) |
| Uptime: | 90:48:28 |
| Calls: | 10,018 |
| Calls today: | 1 |
| Files: | 13,849 |
| D/L today: |
1 files (9K bytes) |
| Messages: | 6,365,854 |