AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Police in the Denver suburb of Aurora say a Venezuelan street gang with little presence in the city failed to take over a run-down apartment complex. Still, the allegation continues to gain traction among conservatives and was reiterated Wednesday by former President Donald Trump in a Fox News town hall, where he said Venezuelans were “taking over the whole city.”
The unproven allegation gained recent momentum after a video was released last month by a resident of the complex showing armed men knocking on an apartment door, heightening fears that the Tren de Aragua gang controls the six-building complex.
However, city officials say the buildings, as well as two other apartment complexes, are in a dilapidated condition due to neglect by property manager CBZ Management.
Aurora is a diverse city that has long struggled with crime and gangs. Police said they have so far linked 10 people to the Tren de Aragua and arrested six of them, including suspects in an attempted murder in July.
But during a visit to the apartments where the gunmen were filmed, acting Aurora Police Chief Heather Morris said the gang members had not taken over the apartments and were not collecting rent. The comments came after Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said “criminal elements” had taken over some unspecified buildings and were extorting residents.
Aurora Police Agent Matthew Longshore reiterated in an email to the Associated Press on Thursday that the agency had confirmed that residents were not paying rent to gang members, but that they had discovered that apartment managers were no longer sending representatives to the complex.
The city of Aurora has already taken legal action against Zev Baumgarten with CBZ for “years of property neglect and numerous building code violations” after another building he managed in Aurora was closed as uninhabitable. Residents were evicted in mid-August. Baumgarten’s trials, scheduled for August and September, have been postponed for at least six months.
CBZ did not immediately return a call seeking comment, and phone numbers for the two open apartment buildings managed by CBZ in Aurora were no longer available.
After residents held a press conference to speak out against the gang allegations, Coffman, a Republican and former congressman, acknowledged he was “not sure where the truth lies in all of this.” In an interview with television station Denver7 this week, Coffman said the narrative that all of Aurora is unsafe is untrue and detrimental to the economic health of the fast-growing city of more than 400,000 residents.
Coffman was not immediately available to comment on the situation Thursday.
Trump is trying to capitalize on concerns about immigration as he seeks a second term in November. At Wednesday night’s town hall meeting, he repeated his call for mass deportations after exaggerating the gang situation in Aurora.
“Look at Aurora, Colorado, where the Venezuelans are taking over the whole town, they’re occupying buildings, the whole town,” Trump said. “You saw it the other day, they’re breaking down doors and occupying people’s homes.”
Among the nearly 1 million Venezuelan migrants who have come to the U.S. in recent years have been suspected gang members linked to police shootings, human trafficking and other crimes. Still, there is no evidence the gang has established an organizational structure in the U.S., Jeremy McDermott, the Colombia-based co-director of InSight Crime, told the AP over the summer. He recently published a report on the Tren de Aragua’s expansion.
Social media posts about a video purporting to show migrants occupying a school bus in San Diego and a 911 call reporting Venezuelan migrants occupying a Chicago apartment building have also recently attracted attention. Both were unsubstantiated.
Many of the immigrants from Venezuela and other Latin American countries who live in the Aurora complex say there are no gangs there and that they are wrongly portrayed as criminals.
They blamed New York-based CBZ Management for refusing to take care of bed bugs, rodents and constant water leaks, even though the monthly rent is $1,200 or more. Residents fear they could be evicted, but the city said Wednesday there are no immediate plans to pursue that option.
“The only criminal here is the owner of the building,” Venezuelan Moises Didenot said through a translator at a press conference in a dusty courtyard of the complex on Tuesday.
He showed reporters some mice he recently caught with sticky traps in the basement apartment he shares with his wife and 11-year-old daughter. Only two of the burners on their stove work, their ceiling fan is missing a blade and as soon as they spotless their bathtub, mold quickly creeps back in, he said.
Aurora officials said in an Aug. 30 social media post that they were taking the Venezuelan gang’s presence seriously and indicated that more arrests were expected. They also said they would “continue to address the problems that the absentee, out-of-state owners of these properties have allowed to fester unchecked.”
The video supporting the unproven allegation shows armed men, including one with a long gun, climbing the stairs and knocking on an apartment door. The former residents who filmed the video told KDVR-TV it was taken before a shooting at the complex on Aug. 18 that later left a 25-year-old man dead.
An Aurora Police Department spokeswoman, Sydney Edwards, said police are in possession of the video and have seized evidence contained in it. She said she could not comment further on the ongoing investigation.
Aurora Police have also announced the creation of a task force with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to specifically address issues related to the Tren de Aragua and other criminal activities affecting migrant communities.
“We will continue to investigate, prosecute and arrest perpetrators and we will continue to maintain an increased presence on these properties,” the city said in a statement on Thursday.
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Hanson reported from Helena, Montana.
