The city of Aurora, Colorado, wants to assign police officers to apartment complexes where alleged gang members from Venezuela have resided, but the property owner has yet to accept the offer.
Jason Batchelor, Aurora city manager, has offered to assign off-duty police officers to work at two CBZ Management properties from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
A city spokesman said this would give CBZ Management more peace of mind as they are encouraged to manage their properties again.
“They have so far not taken us up on that offer,” the spokesman told The Epoch Times on Sept. 17.
“They also continue to be uncooperative with [the Aurora Police Department] on the various criminal cases that occurred at or are tied to their properties going back several months.
“The long-term future of the properties is still to be determined.”
The Epoch Times reached out to CBZ Management for comment but didn’t receive a response by publication time. The New York City-based company owns 11 properties in New York and 11 in Colorado, with a average monthly rent of $1,450 to $2,000.
City officials say claims in social media that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) is taking over apartment complexes are overstated.
Mayor Mike Coffman and council member Danielle Jurinsky recently issued a statement that sought to “clear the record” about violent gang activity and the city’s response.
“We reiterate that the safety, security, and well-being of community members and visitors is of paramount concern to us and the city,” the officials wrote.
“As for the perception and reality of public safety in Aurora, please understand that issues experienced at a select few properties do not apply to the city as a whole or significant portions of it.”
Tren de Aragua (TdA) “has not ’taken over the city,'” the officials wrote.
“The overstated claims fueled by social media and through select news organizations are simply not true. TdA’s presence in Aurora is limited to specific properties, all of which the city has been addressing in various ways for months.”
In a previous interview with The Epoch Times, Coffman said that TdA was present in Aurora, but that it was “isolated.”
Jurinsky had told The Epoch Times: “They are terrorizing other Venezuelan migrants. They are terrorizing the American people.”
“It’s been ignored. The city had downplayed this as code violations at properties. The people have been lied to. I have been lied to. I finally decided I'd had enough and that I was going to expose this on my own.”
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) spokesman Mike Alvarez told The Epoch Times that the agency is aware of TdA activities across the United States.
“HSI is aware of recent violent crime and arrests involving individuals allegedly associated with Tren de Aragua gang and continues to monitor emerging trends and assist partner law enforcement agencies in more than 34 regions throughout the United States and around the globe,” Alvarez said in an email.
In February, the Aurora City Council voted 7–3 in favor of a resolution that said Aurora was not a sanctuary city and lacked the resources to support migrants.
On Aug. 29, a surveillance video that went viral showed TdA members carrying guns and entering at least one apartment complex in Aurora, a suburb of Denver with 393,537 residents.
Coffman recently posted on Facebook that he went to several apartment complexes where the gang is said to be active.
The mayor said he walked through buildings at 12th Avenue and Dallas Street.
He also went through every floor of another “troubled” apartment complex owned by CBZ Management located at 13th Avenue and Helena Street without incident.
“Like the Dallas and 12th Street properties, there is no onsite property manager there to collect the rent and to coordinate maintenance on the property, and, like the Dallas property, the tenants were predominantly newly arrived Venezuelans,” Coffman wrote.
Coffman said the goal is to secure both apartment complexes so that management can take better care of the properties.
“Shutting down the properties, under our Criminal Nuisance ordinance, is the last resort that I hope we don’t have to use,” he said.
In the meantime, Coffman said the city manager made an offer to the property owner to assign two police officers to each of the properties for two weeks if the owner assumes responsibility for onsite management.
“If the owner does not assume responsibility for these properties and start providing routine services, like trash removal, the city will be forced to close both apartment complexes as a last resort,” Coffman wrote.
The city recently went before a judge, asking for a court order to shut down apartment complexes deemed nuisances by city ordinance.
Aurora Police Department recently created a special task force to work with federal law enforcement to assess and interrupt alleged Venezuelan gang activity.
Police Make Arrests
On Sept. 11, the department released a summary containing a photo lineup of documented TdA members arrested on felony charges, including violence, burglary, and attempted murder.
“We release information when it is accurate, confirmed, and does not jeopardize ongoing investigations,” Aurora Police Department agent Matthew Longshore told The Epoch Times in an email.
According to the statement, the department has been “actively investigating reports that members of the Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua, have been living in Aurora and committing acts of violence against members of the migrant community.”
The Aurora Police Department said the summary reflects the department’s “actions and authority alone.”
The statement lists each suspect by name and includes a booking photo and a summary of alleged offenses.
Larry Medina, 29, was arrested on July 10 on charges of felony menacing and attempted second-degree burglary in the incident at Whispering Pines Condominiums.
Jhonardy Pacheco-Chirinos, 22, was arrested on a first-degree assault warrant.
Pacheco-Chirinos is also a suspect in the July 28 nonfatal shooting at an apartment complex.
Other confirmed Tren de Aragua members include Dejesus Pacheco-Chirinos, 24, who is charged with attempted first-degree murder, first-degree aggravated assault, illegal discharge of a firearm, and reckless endangerment at the Nome Street building on July 29.
Luis Miguel Calzadilla-Rojas, 24, is charged with attempted first-degree murder, accessory to homicide, and trying to influence a public servant following a daytime shooting that occurred in front of the Arapahoe County Probation Office.
Yoendry Vilchez Medina-Jose, 33, was charged with felony menacing and third-degree assault in connection with the November 2023 incident at Whispering Pines.
Juan Carlos Mejia-Espana, 27, was charged with second-degree kidnapping, felony menacing, false imprisonment, third-degree assault, child abuse, and domestic violence stemming from a domestic dispute at Whispering Pines in March.
Carlos Aranguren-Mayora, 23, was charged with robbery, theft between $5,000 and $20,000, second-degree burglary, felony menacing, criminal mischief, first-degree burglary, first-degree kidnapping, second-degree kidnapping, robbery, aggravated robbery, motor vehicle theft, obstruction in connection with several alleged offenses committed in the Denver metropolitan area.
Robert Daniel Mora-Marquez, 23, is charged with aggravated first-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping, third-degree assault, felony menacing, illegal discharge of a firearm, harassment, and reckless endangerment following an April 4 dispute and assault over unpaid rent money at an apartment building block in Lima Street.
Mora-Marquez is also a suspect in the nonfatal shooting on June 28 in an apartment block on Nile Street.
Jose Miguel Reyes-Perez, 30, is charged with aggravated assault, felony menacing, and motor vehicle theft stemming after police executed an arrest warrant on May 22.
Yorman Camilo Sangronis-Garcia was included in the police notice but without a photo as he hasn’t been charged. He is known to law enforcement as “a TdA member.”
In late 2023, the city shut down an apartment building on Nome Street for “code violations” following reports of alleged gang activity.
Gang Targeted
In July, the Biden–Harris administration said it would take new steps to stop Tren de Aragua, a group of international criminals that originated in Venezuelan prison gang culture.
These actions included the U.S. Department of the Treasury blocking “all property and interests in property” in the United States and the Department of Justice offering a $12 million reward for the arrest of Tren de Aragua leaders.
The Epoch Times contacted the Biden administration and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
