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A new report has revealed Colorado officials were informed that the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua had taken over several apartment complexes in Aurora weeks before the story became public but failed to respond to the warning.

The Denver Gazette reported attorneys representing CBZ Management, the manager of the gang-occupied properties, sent letters to officials stating the gang had “forcibly taken control” of the sites as of June 27. The Aurora complexes impacted by gangs included The Aspen Grove, Whispering Pines and The Edge at Lowry; CBZ Management is based in Brooklyn, New York.

Aurora’s police officials were made aware of the problem on July 2, and CBZ Management’s lawyers informed Aurora City Manager Jason Batchelor in a letter on July 3 that it lost control of the properties to the gang while residents were being subjected “to threats of physical violence and tyranny from the gangs.”

“The property manager for all three Aurora Multi-Family Projects was notified of the takeover and one of our clients’ housekeepers informed the property manager not to return to the Aurora Multi-Family Projects due to the danger to his well-being,” wrote an attorney for CBZ Management in a letter to Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, adding the Aurora Police Department was unable to take “effective action due” to a consent decree with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.

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“Our clients have, for several months, complained to the Aurora Police Department and the Aurora Code Enforcement Division about the lawlessness surrounding the Aurora Multi-Family Projects,” the letter added. “For the most part, the response has been very little and totally ineffective.”

The story reached international audiences in late August when a video went online showing gun-toting members of Tren de Aragua prowling through the hallways of an apartment complex. Initially, officials in Aurora – along with counterparts in neighboring Denver and Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat – disputed reports on the gang’s activity as exaggerated and false. Ryan Luby, a city of Aurora spokesperson, blamed CBZ Management for not “expending the resources to address the documented issues.”

However, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman has since admitted the problem was real, calling the presence of the gang “a nightmare situation” and acknowledging the city “lost control” and was “working aggressively to get it back.”

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