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The Aurora management company explains how the gang took over their complex

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The Aurora management company explains how the gang took over their complex

The company that operates the apartment buildings where Tren de Aragua members reported in Aurora, Colo., said state officials “refused to acknowledge reality” and instead ignored their pleas of help to attack the band.

CBZ Management Shifts is a New York-based management company that operates the Aurora apartment complexes where TdA has “taken control,” according to the company’s admission. In a lengthy X thread posted by CBZ over the weekend, the company gave an account of the TdA debacle that contradicted the narrative of city officials and accused them of “denying (the) reality of the situation, (and) sometimes use us as scapegoats”.

While the Aurora Police Department has confirmed the presence of 10 TdA members living in the city (law enforcement has captured nine), Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) and officials from the city ​​have largely denied that TdA members controlled the CBZ apartment complexes. Instead, he called CBZ “slumlords” and cited the company’s negligence and mismanagement for causing the conditions that led to the closing of one of the apartment complexes for what the city called “code violations.” .

But CBZ said that’s not the whole story, putting its side of the narrative in a post that said the gang took over three of its properties in Aurora while the city was on hold.

CBZ wrote that after acquiring the apartment complexes, which were in “poor condition” in 2019, it undertook “a complete renovation of almost every unit in the now familiar building you’ve seen in the news.”

“Everything was going smoothly: property values ​​were rising and vacancy rates were falling,” CBZ said. Some media reports indicate that the CBZ complex was experiencing tenant complaints in 2020, prior to the arrival of TdA members to the community. Comments made by the company over the weekend that the renovation project that began in 2019 “would take years to bear fruit” could explain the overlap. The Washington Examr contacted CBZ to investigate the matter but had not received a response at the time of publication.

The property management company said it experienced problems, including an increase “in complaints and complaints from tenants” when TdA gang members “came in”, reported their problems to the City and found that “no one was willing to take meaningful action.”

CBZ said the council’s alleged stonewalling came despite the gang’s “brutal” attack on a company representative sent to inspect the apartment buildings.

“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. When he refused his $500 bribe to pass through high the situation, they brutally attacked him,” CBZ wrote. A photograph attached to the statement appears to depict the representative in question with a bloodied face and shirt, as well as a black eye.

After CBZ said it became aware that gang members were operating a scheme to act as landlords to newcomers and illegally collect rent from people, many of them immigrants sent to live in the complexes by desperate groups of profit in the Aurora area, he again contacted “every city official I could think of to help with the problem.”

“Unfortunately, no one was willing to take meaningful action,” the company said.

At the time, a number of federal agencies, including the FBI, confirmed to CBZ that the people “controlling our buildings were part of Venezuela’s notorious Tren De Aragua gang.”

“Two days after our FBI meeting, the gang confronted our manager on site, claiming control of all three properties. They offered an ultimatum: split the rental income 50/50 or lose the buildings for good . They also threatened to harm him and his family,” the company continued.

At the time, CBZ said it dropped the fight and pulled management staff from the apartment complexes “for security reasons.”

In August, the city of Aurora announced plans to close one of CBZ’s apartment complexes, citing “unresolved code violations and other poor conditions at the property over the past several years” as the reason for the closure.

But CBZ backtracked, saying it was the failure of city officials to help CBZ target TdA gang members in the buildings that led to management staff pulling out of the properties and the eventual downfall of the buildings

“Despite the obvious crisis, several municipal officials refused to recognize the reality. “Instead, they blamed us, citing ‘code violation’ as the reason for closing our property — violations we couldn’t resolve for tenants who weren’t even ours,” the company said.

Despite the FBI report that TdA members were wreaking havoc at the apartment complex, Aurora City Mayor Mike Coffman said at the time that the problems at the building were not caused by gang activity.

“It’s a little late to play the Venezuelan band card,” he said. “Certainly, there are other parts of the city that we are looking at, that we are concerned about. But the problems with this building certainly precede any problems with Venezuelan gangs.”

Last month, Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said gangs had not “taken over” the city, but did not address whether gang members had taken control of the complex. apartments The same month, APD Interim Police Chief Heather Morris alleged that “gang members have not taken over this complex.”

The APD has prominently blamed CBZ for problems with the apartment complex, including during a press conference on September 20, saying it tried to help and warn the property management company of problems that had occurred.

However, CBZ recorded only one City Council member, Danielle Jurinsky, who heeded their calls for reform.

He obtained video “evidence” of gang violence in apartment buildings from a concerned tenant named Cindy Romero and, along with the city’s mayor, led a statement last month about the situation that sought to “clear the record about the widely reported presence of Tren. de Aragua (TdA) in Aurora and throughout the metropolitan area.” The press release stated that while TdA had not “taken over” the city, it “could now confirm that criminal activity, including TdA issues, had significantly affected” CBZ apartment complexes.

Colorado’s Democratic governor has largely downplayed the gang’s presence in Aurora, saying New York Post that Jurinsky’s preoccupations were “largely a feature” of his “imagination.”

But during an Aurora City Council meeting Monday, Jurinsky indicated he had more video footage of gang activity at the apartment complexes. He urged Polis to “call me because I have a video that will do bigger things than bring Donald Trump to the city of Aurora.”

Trump visited the city earlier this month, where he brought Romero, the tenant who had helped lead the accusations about TdA occupying the CBZ apartment complex, on stage to speak at his rally .

“In Aurora, several apartment complexes have been taken over by the savage Venezuelan prison gang,” Trump said before adding: “Somebody thought five years ago, six years ago, that somebody would be up here talking about Would a Venezuelan gang with the most sophisticated rifles, guns and pistols anyone has ever seen take over your state?

Former President Donald Trump (R) hugs Cindy Romero during a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center on Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colorado. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Jurinsky indicated Monday that his videos would provide more evidence of the debacle.

“There is only one other person on the planet who is in possession of this video, and I will tell you that it has haunted me to the core. I am asking him, governor, to put politics aside. I am asking you to call me, to call and see the videos I am in possession of because we need leadership,” he said. “if you don’t call me, the videos will come out.”

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