Welcome to Eric Adams NYC- illegals form a gang called Tren de Aragua as they terrorize Americans in violent robberies

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It’s a crime wave that has raised fears across the city: robbers on mopeds snatching people’s phones from their hands and speeding off.

In one especially brazen attack, the moped-riding bandits dragged a 62-year-old woman down a Brooklyn street in December.

After the phones are stolen, the victims’ bank and cash accounts are drained of cash, with fraudulent transactions in both the US and South America, and the phones themselves sent to Colombia to be wiped, reprogrammed and sold.

Now The Post can disclose that the pattern of robberies is being linked by law enforcement to a brutal Venezuelan gang which is sending its members to New York as part of the migrant wave — and using its sprawling criminal empire to launder the proceeds of the crimes.

Until recent weeks police had been concerned about rises in thefts and robberies in the city — such as a spate of pickpocketing on the subway system and around the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree — being linked to low-level, unorganized criminals who were among the estimated 170,000 migrants who have arrived in the city

But sources tell The Post that the brutal Venezuelan “Tren de Aragua” gang has moved into New York by having its members cross the southern border and claim asylum, and is likely behind many of the moped robberies.

It is the only new gang so far being tracked among the new migrant arrivals in the city, sources say.

The NYPD has not so far discussed the gang publicly — but at a briefing last week, senior officers described a pattern of moped robberies which The Post is told have the hallmarks of Tren de Aragua.


They have now established presences in Columbia, Peru, Brazil and Chile under leader Niño Guerrero (“Warrior Kid”) whose real name is Héctor Rustherford Guerrero Flores and who escaped the prison raid safely along with around 80 other senior leaders.

Their violent practices have shocked even the most hardened in South America, particularly for their willingness to kill women.