A Colorado management company has released brutal surveillance footage and photos of bloody employees to illustrate its ongoing problems with violent Venezuelan immigrant gangs.
CBZ Management, a Brooklyn-based company that operates 11 complexes in Colorado, said members of Torren de Aragua threatened employees and took command of the entire Aurora apartment complex, forcing them to leave the company in exchange for continued operation of the apartment complexes. He announced that he had tried to extort a portion of the rent. properties.
Earlier this year, one of the company's buildings made headlines nationwide after surveillance footage showed a group of heavily armed men, believed to be members of a Venezuelan prison gang, walking through an apartment building at The Edge at Raleigh and speaking Spanish. It became a headline.
The latest footage shows one of CBZ's representatives being assaulted after refusing to accept a bribe at the Whispering Pines complex in late 2023, the company said. Fox 31.
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CBZ management shared this photo with X that purports to show one of its employees refusing to accept a bribe from a gang member at one of the company's complexes in Aurora, Colorado. (@Cbzmanagement in X)
The company wrote to X that it had discovered a group of male squatters in an apartment recently vacated by an employee and would not accept the $500 to “oversee the situation.”
The company said the man was beaten so severely that he required hospital treatment.
“I think they tried to kill me. I don't know how they got out, but they got away,” the representative, whose bloody photo was shown on the X show by the management company, told FOX 31 told.
After the attack, employees began receiving threats via text messages that included their home address and spouse's name, the company said.
Police report on the incident obtained from the 18th Judicial District Court. denver 7 It shows that one of the company's property managers was assaulted by Torren de Aragua member Yoendry Vilches Medina-José, documented in November 2023. It wasn't immediately clear whether it was the same incident.
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Alleged members of the Torren de Aragua gang allegedly occupied an apartment in Aurora, Colorado and demanded rent in exchange for “protection.” (Edward Romero)
After the incident, the company announced that its representatives met with FBI officials. The agency acknowledged that members of Torren de Aragua were behind the text messages and building occupations, but acknowledged that the issue was a “blip on the radar” with the Venezuelan gang's growing presence nationwide. has been done.
The FBI could not be reached for comment.
CBZ also said gangs occupied tenants' apartments during the holidays, forcing them to look for new places to live when they returned home.
“Gangs have taken over several of our properties in Aurora, Colorado,” the company wrote in an X thread last week. “There are those who spread misinformation about our situation in an attempt to discredit this fact for political purposes and avoid government responsibility.”
The company said it had to pull employees back from an apartment complex in Aurora.
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“Despite clear evidence, many still deny the reality of the situation and sometimes use us as scapegoats. That is why we will no longer remain silent,” the company said. I'm writing. “We will continue to counter falsehoods with simple facts and evidence. Yes, gangs did take over our apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, and the government did nothing. It's a true story.”
This was announced by the Aurora Police Department. denver 7 “We have yet to find evidence of a gang takeover at any CBZ facility.”
“While we acknowledge that gang members reside, or are likely to reside, in CBZ properties, experience has shown us that gang members and different properties throughout the metropolitan area also The same is true,” the representative said. he told the outlet.
Similarly, an Aurora spokesperson said: new york post It said the company's claims were “exaggerated.”
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“These delinquent property owners, managers and/or ‘investors’ have had their bank lenders take them to court in the past few weeks and judges have placed some of the offending properties into receivership. “We conveniently do not acknowledge that we have ordered this,” the spokesperson said. “This means that the judge has actually given a third-party trustee the legal authority to manage the property, and the property owner will be forced to compensate anyone.”
Last Friday, former President Donald Trump visited Aurora and linked the city's alleged gang problem to the Biden-Harris administration's border policies.
According to Denver 7, CBZ Management has a history of arrests dating back to 2020, with violations ranging from rat infestations to dozens of illegally parked cars to damaged ceilings. Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman characterized the management company as the “king of the slums.” KDVR reported.
“It's a little slow to play the Venezuelan gang card,” Coffman said. “Certainly there are other parts of the city that we are looking at and are concerned about. But this building issue definitely takes precedence over the Venezuelan gang issue.”
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According to a post on X, CBZ Management said the city “fabricated code violations” to cover up the presence of foreign gangs. The company said it had undergone “perfect inspections in 2022 and 2023” and that there had been no violations. It has been “addressed”.
“The only violation that was not addressed was when a gang occupied it and did not want our six on-site staff working there for safety reasons,” the company said.
Media and government officials are downplaying the influence of Venezuelan gangs in Aurora, a woman who moved out of her apartment earlier this year because of escalating violence told Fox News Digital.
“It feels like a slap in the face,” Cindy Romero said. “How many gangs can you have in Aurora? How many properties can you take over? How many bill-paying citizens can you evict?”
