Apartment owner doubles down on Tren de Aragua claims in newly-created social media account

AURORA, Colo. — CBZ Management, which operates 11 apartment complexes in Colorado including a trio of troubled buildings in Aurora that have been thrust into the national conversation around immigration politics, is doubling down on its claims of a Venezuelan gang takeover on a newly-created social media account.

A new account on the social media site X, formerly Twitter, surfaced last month and posted for the first time Friday. CBZ Management has since added the link to the account on its website and publicly claimed the account on Monday.

A flurry of weekend posts from the account alleged that gangs had taken over multiple of the company’s Aurora buildings, marking the most public chapter of what has become a months-long back-and-forth between the apartment manager and the city.

One of the claims made in the new social media posts involves a local CBZ representative who the company says was “attacked” after refusing a bribe from a group of men who had occupied a vacated apartment. The company shared a photo of a bloodied man along with a video clip claiming to show part of the attack.

A police report from that incident was suppressed, but a complaint Denver7 obtained from the 18th Judicial District Court that states Zev Baumgarten – the company’s property manager against whom the city has said it is pursuing legal action for charges stemming from at least one rundown apartment complex – was assaulted by Yoendry Vilchez Medina-Jose, a documented TdA member, in November of 2023. No other details about the assault were made available.

"We have said several times in the past that we have not yet obtained evidence of a gang takeover at any CBZ properties," Aurora police told Denver7 in a statement when asked about the resurfaced allegations. "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."

The CBZ X account posted additional videos that it claims show evidence of a takeover by the notorious prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), but did not detail if or how it confirmed the people seen in the footage were members of TdA.

• RELATED: Identifying TdA members can be difficult. Denver7 spoke with an organized crime expert about the challenges.

The posts have garnered national attention, with X owner Elon Musk signal-boosting the claims in an early-morning repost Monday. The company’s first post also came less than 24 hours after former President Donald Trump’s Aurora rally that focused heavily on the presence of Venezuelan gangs in American cities.

CBZ said in one of the posts that city officials were unwilling "to take meaningful action" when the company raised the issue of alleged gang infiltration at its complexes. Denver7 has requested the city's communications with CBZ Management.

CBZ Management started making headlines in early August when the city said it would shut down Fitzsimons Place, a complex on Nome Street, over code violations and poor living conditions. CBZ said at the time it wasn’t present at the complex to improve conditions because of an alleged gang takeover.

The company has since made similar claims in regards to two of its other Aurora properties: The Edge of Lowry on Dallas Street and the Whispering Pines Apartments on Helena Street. A law firm hired by a lender connected to one at least one CBZ property penned a letter to the city in August claiming gang members had taken over the Whispering Pines Apartments and initiated a string of violent crimes – claims that were reiterated in the weekend social media thread.

Inspection records, though, show Whispering Pines tenants have dealt with issues like busted doorways and crumbling balconies for some time. Denver's Department of Public Health and Environment told Denver7 it has spent years investigating complaints filed at CBZ Management's three Denver properties — The Jewell, William Penn and Courtyard on Vine.

Multiple Denver7 journalists reached out to CBZ Management in recent months as the station reported on the allegations against the company and its history. The company has not agreed to talk to us.

Denver7 investigative reporter Natalie Chuck posted a reply to one of the company’s posts on X asking the question: Why take to social media instead of speaking with local news reporters?

“We're just a company trying to give value to our tenants and owners,” the company said in response. “We're responding now out of frustration of media printing false information about us. Even many media outlets we did respond to, ignored our facts. We'll be posting more facts on X so the public can see for themselves.”

We also asked the city for its take on the social media account and the publicly renewed claims.

“We are not going to give credence to these continued exaggerations. Please see the numerous statements and many public records we have provided,” a city spokesperson wrote in a text message. “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. 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.”

• RELATED: A judge earlier this month ordered a third-party caretaker to oversee the troubled apartment complexes. Read that story here.

City officials, including Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, have repeatedly denied the claims that gangs had taken over buildings in the city – claims echoed by Trump during the presidential debate last month – and written them off as “dramatically exaggerated.” Residents have also pushed back on the claims.

The takeover allegations built a head of steam when doorbell camera video captured six armed men entering a neighboring apartment unit at the Edge of Lowry complex minutes before a fatal shooting in August.

Those six men, however, have not been connected to any criminal organization, police said. Police in Aurora have identified 10 confirmed members of Tren de Aragua.