In an effort to combat government inaction and media disinformation, an apartment management company has taken to social media to “set the record straight” about how three of its properties in Aurora, Colorado were taken over by a ruthless Venezuelan criminal gang.

“Yes, gangs did take control of our apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado, and the government did nothing. That is the real story,” CBZ Management, a Brooklyn-based company that operates eleven apartment complexes in Colorado, posted on X, Friday. The city shut down one of the properties and two others remain under the control of the brutal Tren de Aragua prison gang, CBZ said.

In a subsequent X thread on Monday, CBZ Management alleged that “the government not only ignored the crisis but also scapegoated us to avoid accountability.”  The company also accused the corporate media of “obscuring this issue,” which is what prompted them to tell their story directly on X.

The embattled company posted a photo of an employee who was brutally beaten late last year by members of Tren de Aragua after he refused to let them stay in a vacant apartment they had taken over.

“After the attack on our CBZ representative, he began getting threatening text messages,” the landlord wrote on X.

We also frequently found people illegally occupying newly vacated apartments during scheduled tours. This was initially attributed to an influx of migrants exploiting squatter laws. We even received a call from a tenant returning from vacation, only to find strangers living in his apartment. This legitimate tenant was forced to find a new home after police couldn’t help him.

Aurora, a suburb of Denver, has a population of 390,000.

CBZ said they contacted multiple city officials for help with the gang infestation, but “none were willing to take meaningful action.” The company said they also petitioned Colorado governor Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser (both Democrats) for help and were ignored.

Meanwhile, the gang’s criminal activities became increasingly brazen, with members destroying the company’s security cameras, and continuing to threaten and dox the employee and his wife.

CBZ said that the FBI and Homeland Security eventually informed them that the culprits terrorizing their employees and renters were Tren De Aragua gang members, and that their situation was just “a blip on the radar,” as this Venezuelan prison gang was also “causing significant problems nationwide.”

Tren De Aragua is a transnational criminal organization that formed in a state prison in Aragua, Venezuela about ten years ago.  The group’s criminal activities reportedly include “human smuggling, drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has described the gang as a “foreign terroristic organization.”

Two days after CBZ met with the FBI, the gang told the on-site manager that they had taken control over all three properties. The criminals tried to extort the manager, offering a 50/50 cut in rent in exchange for being allowed to continue managing the properties. He was allegedly told to accept the deal or he and his family would be harmed and CBZ would lose the buildings permanently.

“For the safety of our management team and their families, we withdrew them from the properties and focused on seeking help from government agencies,” CBZ explained on X.

“Once we fully understood what we—and our tenants—were facing, we expected a swift response, with the city offering meaningful resources and police protection—perhaps even from the National Guard—to help us regain control of our properties,” CBZ posted. “That never happened. Instead, we were left helpless, watching as violence, bullets, and destruction overtook our buildings. Many of our legitimate tenants fled out of fear.”

“Despite the obvious crisis, several city officials refused to acknowledge the reality,” CBZ continued. “Instead, they blamed us, citing “code violations” as the reason for shutting down our property—violations we couldn’t resolve for tenants who weren’t even ours.”

Colorado became a “sanctuary state” in May 2019, when Governor Polis signed House Bill 1124 prohibiting local law enforcement officials from complying with federal immigration detainers requesting the transfer of custody of undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes to ICE.

CBZ said one city councilwoman finally took action after one of their “last remaining legitimate tenants, Cindy Romero, reached out to her in desperation.” Cindy was able to provide video proof of the gang’s activities to Dani Jurinsky, the councilwoman. Jurinsky helped Cindy relocate to a safer dwelling before publicly releasing the footage, which became an instant sensation on social media last month.

“Despite clear evidence, many still deny the reality of the situation, sometimes using us as scapegoats,” CBZ posted on X, Friday. “That’s why we are no longer staying silent. We will continue to counter falsehoods with simple facts and evidence.”

Also not staying silent is Cindy Romero, who told local media that the police “left us there to die.”

On Monday, Romero told Fox News that the corporate media’s attempts to downplay the terrifying situation was like a “slap in the face.”

ABC News host Martha Raddatz last week attempted to “fact check” former President Donald Trump on the subject during her interview with GOP Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance.

During a rally in Aurora last week, Trump had made a point of linking the city’s Tren de Aragua nightmare to the Harris-Biden regime’s border policies.

Sensing that the issue was toxic for fellow Democrats in an election year,  Raddatz pushed back on Trump’s hyperbolic assertion that the criminal gang had “conquered” the city, insisting that the Aurora mayor had said the incidents were just “limited to a handful of apartment complexes.”

Vance had shot back, “Martha, do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem and not Kamala Harris’ open border?”

On Fox News, Romero said: “How many gangs is okay to have in Aurora? How many properties is okay to take over? How many people, who are citizens paying their bills, is it okay to displace?”

As it stands now, according to CBZ, two of their properties remain under gang control, and the third building—with 99 apartments—was shut down by the city for “code violations.”

CBZ noted that in 2023, all three buildings had passed full inspections that included “a detailed walk-through of every unit.”

The company argued that the city chose to blame them for the shutdown of the apartment, rather than address the criminal takeover their properties.

CBZ said the Aurora Chief of Police declared the property a criminal nuisance in a warning letter and said “property owners are expected to be vigilant in preventing or deterring crime.”

The landlord argued in response that they “believe crime prevention and deterrence are primarily the police’s responsibility.”

Notably, our representative was attacked in the building by gang members less than two months after we received this letter. This is what happens when the police fail to take responsibility and instead place the burden on property managers.

We sought help before the situation escalated to where we stand today, believing other government officials were unaware of what was happening to our buildings. We contacted everyone in power we thought could help.

CBZ said local police purposefully left them in the dark about the dangerous situation in their buildings.

“We had no idea we were dealing with an organized crime group until we later met with the FBI and Homeland Security, who told us the crimes on our properties were linked to a larger issue involving the Tren de Aragua cartel,” the company stated on X.

The bottom line is that the police failed to do their job, which allowed crime to escalate. When our tenants called for help, their calls were often ignored. Our full-time management team, consisting of six members—four of whom lived on-site—faced the same difficulties in getting police to respond. Our on-site employees were threatened with death. The gang threatened to kill our on-site manager if he returned to the property.

Even the private security company we hired – at the request of the city – encountered challenges in getting law enforcement to respond. The issue persisted even after the video of the armed men in the stairwell went viral across America. Here are multiple reports from our security company documenting many situations where they called to report suspicious activity and often waited many hours for police to arrive – often never showing up.

CBZ also lashed out at Aurora Mayor Coffman, saying he chose to label the company as “out-of-STATE slumlords,” rather than do something about the illegal gangsters terrorizing the city.

CBZ bristled at the slur, noting on X that the company has “local representation, employ locals and have invested $1.3 million into upgrading these properties.”

“Even if we were from out-of-state, shouldn’t a mayor want to attract out-of-state investors to improve his city? Now that the Walgreens near our property is shutting down, will the mayor call them ‘out-of-state drug lords’? the company wrote.

The mayor even blamed our nearby Walmart for their recent closure, suggesting that Walmart (not the police) was too soft on crime.

If the city had fulfilled its basic responsibilities instead of deflecting blame, our $1.3 million investment could have contributed to revitalizing Aurora. Instead, hardworking tenants lost their homes due to the city’s failure to protect them. As a result, we have been harmed, our lenders have suffered, and the City of Aurora is now under national scrutiny—rightfully so.

CBZ added “there is much more to this story,” and promised to “provide specific details” about their ordeal “backed by solid data.”

X owner Elon Musk shared CBZ’s thread Monday, commenting “this is crazy.”

The company posted on Tuesday: If Musk “has enough time to look into this,” Gov. Polis and Mayor Coffman “should have enough time to help us get our buildings back!”