Police in Aurora, a Denver suburb, say a Venezuelan gang with a small presence in the town has not taken over a rundown housing unit. But the allegation continues to gain traction among conservatives, with former President Donald Trump declaring Wednesday in a town hall hearing broadcast on Fox News that Venezuelans were “taking over the entire city.”
The baseless accusation gained traction after a video emerged last month of a resident showing gunmen knocking on the door of an apartment, heightening fears that the Tren de Aragua gang controlled the six-building housing complex.
However, city officials say the buildings, along with two other housing units, were in disrepair due to negligence by the management company, CBZ Management.
Aurora is a diverse city that has long struggled with crime and gangs, and police said they had so far linked 10 people to the Tren de Aragua and arrested six of them, including suspects in an attempted murder in July.
But on a visit to the apartments where the gunmen were filmed, interim Aurora Police Chief Heather Morris denied that gangs had taken over and were 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 Officer Matthew Longshore reiterated in an email to The Associated Press on Thursday that police have found that residents are not paying rent to gangs, but have discovered that management no longer sends representatives to the housing unit.
The city of Aurora has already taken legal action against CBZ’s Zev Baumgarten for “years of neglect and numerous code violations” after another building managed by the company in Aurora was closed down after being declared uninhabitable. Its residents were evicted in mid-August. Trials against Baumgarten, scheduled for August and September, have been postponed for at least six months.
CBZ did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment, and the phone numbers for the two CBZ-managed housing units in Aurora were disconnected.
After residents held a news conference to debunk gang-related rumors, Coffman, a former Republican lawmaker, admitted he was “not sure what the truth is in all of this.” In an interview this week with Denver7 television, Coffman said the claim that all of Aurora was unsafe was untrue and hurt the local economy of a rapidly growing city of more than 400,000 residents.
Coffman was not available to discuss the matter Thursday.
Trump has sought to capitalize on immigration concerns as he seeks re-election in November. During Wednesday’s hearing, he repeated his call for mass deportations after exaggerating the presence of gangs in Aurora.
“Look at what’s happening in Aurora, Colorado, where the Venezuelans are taking over the entire city, they’re taking over the buildings, the entire city,” Trump said. “You saw it the other day, they’re kicking down doors and taking over people’s apartments.”
Among the nearly 1 million Venezuelan migrants who have entered the United States in recent years have been suspected gang members linked to shootouts with police, human trafficking and other crimes, though there is no evidence the gang has established an organizational structure in the United States, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of Colombia-based InSight Crime, told the AP earlier this month. McDermott recently published a report on the expansion of the Aragua Train.
Social media posts of a video purporting to show immigrants taking over a school bus in San Diego and a 911 call reporting that Venezuelan immigrants had taken over a residential building in Chicago have also garnered attention lately. Both cases turned out to be unfounded.
Many of the Venezuelan and other Latin American immigrants who live in the Aurora housing unit say there are no gangs there and that they are unfairly labeled as criminals.
They blame New York-based CBZ Management for refusing to eliminate bedbug and rodent infestations and repair persistent water leaks in the buildings, even though monthly rents cost $1,200 or more. Residents fear they could be evicted, but officials said Wednesday there were no immediate plans to carry out an eviction.
“The only criminal here is the owner of the building,” Venezuelan-born Moisés Didenot said through a translator at a news conference in a dusty courtyard of the housing complex on Tuesday.
Didenot showed reporters some of the mice he had recently caught on sticky traps he placed in the basement apartment where he lives with his wife and 11-year-old daughter. Only two of the burners on his stove work, the ceiling fan is missing a blade and the bathtub is not cleaned until it is once again covered in mold.
Local authorities said in a social media post on August 30 that they were taking the presence of the Venezuelan gang seriously and indicated that more arrests were expected. They also said they would “continue to address the problems that the owners of these properties have allowed to grow unchecked.”
The video that helped fuel the baseless allegation showed armed men, one of them carrying a long gun, walking up the stairs and knocking on an apartment door. Former residents who recorded it told KDVR-TV that they recorded it before a shooting at the apartment complex on Aug. 18 in which a 25-year-old man was shot and later killed.
Aurora police spokeswoman Sydney Edwards said police have the video and have seized evidence shown in the footage. She said she could not comment further on an ongoing investigation.
Aurora police have also announced the creation of a joint task force with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to specifically address concerns related to the Tren de Aragua and other criminal activities affecting immigrant communities.
“We will continue to investigate, pursue and arrest those who commit crimes, and maintain a strong presence at these properties,” local authorities said in a statement Thursday.
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