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REVEALED: BRUTALLY VIOLENT VENEZUELAN ‘TREN DE ARAGUA’ GANG IS USING MIGRANT
WAVE TO LAUNCH NYC PHONE ROBBERY SPREE
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Published Feb. 12, 2024, 5:00 a.m. ET
Horrific video shows woman dragged along NYC street by migrant moped
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MORE ON: MIGRANTS
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BORDER
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* ADAMS IMPOSING CURFEW AT SOME MIGRANT SHELTERS AFTER TIMES SQUARE SHOOTING
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, moped-riding bandits dragged a 62-year-old
woman down a Brooklyn street in December.
After the phones are stolen, the victims’ bank accounts are drained of cash,
with fraudulent transactions in both the US and South America, and the phones
themselves are 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 that 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 since the start of 2023.
20
Go Nakamura for NY Post; Christopher Sadowski; NYPD; Google Maps; Adobe Stock;
Alamy
20
This brutal robbery in Brooklyn in January uses tactics linked to Tren de
Aragua: migrants on stolen mopeds snatching phones from people’s hands so they
can keep them unlocked, then drain victims’ accounts of cash.
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 so far has not 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.
20
Migrants who allegedly attacked a police officer and lieutenant in Times Square
last week are at the center of concerns they could be linked to Tren de Aragua.
DCPI
Separately, sources told The Post last Saturday there were concerns that a gang
that assaulted two police officers in Times Square could be linked to Tren de
Aragua. It was unclear whether a 15-year-old Venezuelan arrested Friday over the
Times Square shooting of a tourist has ties to the gang.
Last month, a suspect believed to be connected to Tren de Aragua was arrested
after the brutal murder of a retired Venezuelan police officer, who was lured to
his death in Miami by a group of prostitutes.
And in Chicago, the Cook County Sheriff’s Department intelligence division has
been revealed by NBC5 Chicago to be tracking its presence in the city.
SOUTH AMERICAN CRIME LORDS
Tren de Aragua, meaning Aragua Train, started in 2012 among trade union members
in the Aragua province of Venezuela who turned a planned railroad into an
opportunity for grift, and has exploded since into a violent gang involved in
robberies, drug dealing and human trafficking across South America.
The Venezuelan government officially sees it as a criminal enterprise and sent
in 11,000 soldiers on September 23 last year to take back a prison under the
gang’s control in Tocorón, in the country’s interior.
20
Tren de Aragua has exploded from the Venezuelan province of Aragua, where in
September last year, thousands of soldiers stormed a prison the gang had taken
over. ZUMAPRESS.com
20
Despite the scale of the assault by Venezuela’s national guard, the leaders of
Tren de Aragua all escaped before they stormed the jail — fueling speculation
that the gang is closely tied to the country’s strongman leader, Nicolas Maduro.
AFP via Getty Images
But, The Post is told, its members have also been used as enforcers for the
Cartel of the Suns drug-trafficking network, which the US Department of Justice
alleges is run by Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro from his presidential
palace in Caracas.
They have established presences in Colombia, Peru, Brazil and Chile under leader
Niño Guerrero (“Warrior Kid”), whose real name is Héctor Rusthenford 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 their willingness to kill women.
20
In Colombia, the gang has put gruesome images of its torture and murders on
social media, such as this image of a man tortured with his hands bound by the
cord from hair straighteners. There has been public outcry at the scale of
violence. Autor Anónimo
20
“Satan,” the leader of the Tren de Aragua in Colombia, was arrested in January
after a series of murders in which businesses’ employees were dismembered and
their body parts dumped outside the owners’ businesses. Migración Colombia
Ammon Blair, a former US Border Patrol agent and senior fellow at the Texas
Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, said, “They go into local
economies where there are Venezuelans and take over the criminal underground
using excessive force.
“They’ll start shooting prostitutes controlled by rival gangs and perform the
executions live on social media in order to establish their presence.”
In Colombia in January, a series of brutal murders saw people lured to hotel
rooms by Tren de Arauga members, tortured and killed, with their ordeals
recorded for other gang members. One young man was tied hand and foot, choked
with a cable and beaten with a hammer before being shot.
The gang’s leader in Colombia, José Manuel Vera, calls himself “Satan,” and was
arrested after trying to extort businesses in a series of towns, with
bloodthirsty demands sent in WhatsApp voice notes.
20
In Peru, the murder of a transgender prostitute, shot repeatedly at point-blank
range, was videotaped and put on social media — kicking off a bloodbath in the
city’s sex trade as Tren de Aragua took over.
20
In parts of South America, the gang issues warnings on letters with a logo and
an AK-style rifle as letterheads.
When the owners did not pay up, their employees were kidnapped, tortured and
dismembered, their body parts bound in tarps and dumped outside the businesses.
In Lima, Peru, last February, a transgender prostitute was shot point-blank 31
times and the murder put on social media — a warning that Tren de Aragua now ran
city’s the sex trade. It was the start of a bloodbath: Twenty-four Lima
prostitutes were murdered in 2023, apparently by the gang.
In Chile, dismembered victims’ bones have been found in cement at building
sites, and the country’s prosecutor held crisis talks with his Colombian
counterpart about the gang’s threat to law and order.
EXPLOITING THE BORDER
Gang members began making their way from Venezuela to the southern US border in
2017, Blair told The Post.
That year, there were nearly 2,800 “encounters” with Venezuelan migrants at the
border, according to US Customs and Border Protection statistics.
20
The border crisis has allowed Tren de Aragua members to enter the United States
by claiming asylum. REUTERS
But from October 2022 to September 2023, more than 334,000 Venezuelans crossed
the border — second only to 735,000 Mexicans — with Tren de Aragua playing a key
part in trafficking many from Venezuela.
“When they crossed the border into Colombia, they began to control everyone’s
passage, charging fees to other Venezuelans to make the crossing,” said Robert
Almonte, a security consultant and former US marshal in El Paso.
Border Patrol agents apprehended 41 Tren de Aragua members crossing the border
between October 2022 and September 2023, according to US Customs and Border
Protection.
The only signs that they belong to the ruthless group are tattoos featuring
rifles and skulls, Almonte said — although they have started telling new members
not to get tattoos in order to evade police.
20
Law enforcement database information seen by The Post shows examples of gang
tattoos photographed on Tren de Aragua members, including AK-style rifles and
trains. Source: New York Post
20
Other tattoos have included a silhouette of a basketball player and a name under
a crown. The group wears “23” basketball jerseys like LeBron James and Michael
Jordan. Source: New York Post
20
Border Patrol issued this picture of an arrested Tren de Aragua member last
October, showing his crown tattoo. US CBP
They also favor tattoos of silhouetted basketball players and basketball jerseys
emblazoned with Michael Jordan’s and LeBron James’ number, 23 — a reference to
the date of the prison raid.
Alamonte said the group is so brazen that a Texas state anti-gang task force
recently documented them charging fellow Venezuelans to use federal toilet
facilities at the border.
RECRUITING IN NYC’S SHELTERS
Tren de Aragua members are among the arrivals in New York, but also use the
surge of new migrants at shelters in the city to recruit criminals.
The NYPD’s chief of detectives, Joseph Kenny, revealed last week how cops had
busted one set of moped bandits — and although he did not say they were from
Tren de Aragua, sources told The Post that the pattern is exactly how the
Venezuelan gang has been operating in South American cities.
Kenny said last Monday 62 robberies in the city since November 2023, 34 of them
in Manhattan, had been linked to the single group of at least 14 people, who
used two-man moped crews to snatch victims’ phones and, because the majority of
victims were women, purses.
20
The NYPD has arrested two men in connection to a crew of migrants who have been
stealing cellphones while riding mopeds. NYPD
20
Cleyber Andrade, 19, and Juan Uzcatgui, 23, are allegedly connected to a ring
responsible for 62 instances of grand larceny. NYPD
Most of the robbers were living in the migrant shelters, and had received orders
via WhatsApp from a mastermind whom Kenny identified as Victor Parra, a
30-year-old Venezuelan migrant who arrived last year.
“Parra will send out specific orders for what type of phone he is looking for,”
Kenny said.
“Once the messages are received, the crime wave begins, with the scooter
operators making $100 a day and the actual phone snatcher making between $300 to
$600 per phone that is stolen.”
Sources told The Post that the pattern matched how Tren de Aragua operates in
South America, with gang members recruiting among young men — in New York’s
case, in migrant shelters — and using stolen scooters to move around the city.
20
Young men with scooters are easy for the gang to find at New York’s shelters for
the new arrivals, including the Roosevelt Hotel on East 46th Street in Midtown
Manhattan. Seth Gottfried
Because Tren de Aragua is involved in human trafficking, gang recruiters may
also have phone numbers for many of the migrants who come to New York, allowing
them to blast mass WhatsApp messages to scores or hundreds of people at a time.
TURNING PHONES INTO ‘GOLD’
Kenny said the stolen phones had been taken to alleged mastermind Parra’s home —
a NYCHA apartment in the Parkside Houses in the Bronx — where a “hacker” drained
them of cash. A raid early last Monday uncovered 22 stolen phones and victims’
IDs.
But the actual robbers play a crucial part. The driver maneuvers the moped and
the grabber latches onto a phone, wrenching it from the victim — who, crucially,
is using it at the time.
Phone in hand, the grabber, riding on the back of the bike, then stops the phone
from locking.
“He may keep tapping it,” Jonathan S. Weissman, cybersecurity professor at
Rochester Institute of Technology, told The Post. “Or else he can set the phone
to ‘never’ on auto-lock. That way, the thieves keep it alive without needing to
tap the screen.”
20
This was the stash house in the Bronx where police found 22 stolen phones in a
raid last Monday. The tactics the gang caught by the NYPD used are identical
those of Tren de Aragua, sources tell The Post. Google Maps
Once the phones are delivered to the safe house, the hackers get to work,
hunting for bank accounts, payment apps and credit cards.
According to experts, they can change codes, making it difficult for victims to
stop the speedy ransacking of their accounts. Having stolen IDs from purses also
helps them hack.
“Most of the security codes can be reset via SMS,” Jayson E. Street, chief
adversarial officer for Secure Yetti, told The Post. “You communicate to the
apps that you forgot your passcodes. They can then be reset by putting in the
verification codes that are sent to the phone.”
The hacked phones can be exceptionally valuable. “The apps are used to make
illegal transactions and fraudulent purchases in the United States and South
America,” said the NYPD’s Kenny.
20
The phones stolen in New York are sent to Bogotá, Colombia, where they are
wiped, reprogrammed and sold by Tren de Aragua operatives. The gang’s fronts in
the city deal with stolen phones from across South America, and now the US. AFP
via Getty Images
334
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With money drained or the accounts frozen by the victim, the phone is still
valuable: It is shipped to Colombia, Kenny said.
Sources told The Post that Tren de Aragua has a network carrying out the work,
with phones wiped by its operatives in Bogotá, then sold across South America.
Said Weissman, “It’s the equivalent of melting down stolen gold.”
‘GHOST’ CRIMINALS
At the NYPD’s press conference, Kenny warned that the robbery gangs were
“ghosts”: “No criminal history, no photos, no cellphone, no social media.
Sometimes we’re even unclear on a name or a date of birth.”
Of the 14 identified as being in the robbery gang, cops so far have arrested
seven, and Varra remains on the run.
NYPD sources said migrants have exploited the ID NYC scheme by getting different
IDs at the Roosevelt and Floyd Bennett Field shelters.
20
This is “El Niño Guerrero” or “Warrior Kid,” the 40-year-old founder of Tren de
Aragua — who could be on the loose in the United States. Venezuelan Interior
Ministry
20
“El Niño Guerrero,” real name Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, is wanted by
Venezuelan authorities and has an Interpol red notice out for him. Venezuelan
Interior Ministry
Statistics show robberies up 9% citywide in 2024, from 1,164 to 1,278, compared
to the same period in 2023, and up 14% on the same period in 2022.
Grand larcenies — theft of more than $1,000, which would include mobile phones
that were drained of cash — were also up 1.6%, to 3,726, for the four weeks
ending February 4, compared to 3,666 for the same four weeks in 2023.
But Tren de Aragua’s biggest ghost is its leader, Niño Guerrero. An Interpol
“red notice,” requesting his arrest, warns that the mastermind’s whereabouts are
unknown.
Among the countries he could be in: the United States.
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* asylum
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* 2/12/24
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Go Nakamura for NY Post; Christopher Sadowski; NYPD; Google Maps; Adobe Stock;
Alamy
This brutal robbery in Brooklyn in January uses tactics linked to Tren de
Aragua: migrants on stolen mopeds snatching phones from people's hands so they
can keep them unlocked, then drain victims' accounts of cash.
Migrants who allegedly attacked a police officer and lieutenant in Times Square
last week are at the center of concerns they could be linked to Tren de Aragua.
DCPI
Tren de Aragua has exploded from the Venezuelan province of Aragua, where in
September last year, thousands of soldiers stormed a prison the gang had taken
over. ZUMAPRESS.com
Despite the scale of the assault by Venezuela's national guard, the leaders of
Tren de Aragua all escaped before they stormed the jail — fueling speculation
that the gang is closely tied to the country's strongman leader, Nicolas Maduro.
AFP via Getty Images
In Colombia, the gang has put gruesome images of its torture and murders on
social media, such as this image of a man tortured with his hands bound by the
cord from hair straighteners. There has been public outcry at the scale of
violence. Autor Anónimo
"Satan," the leader of the Tren de Aragua in Colombia, was arrested in January
after a series of murders in which businesses' employees were dismembered and
their body parts dumped outside the owners' businesses. Migración Colombia
In Peru, the murder of a transgender prostitute, shot repeatedly at point-blank
range, was videotaped and put on social media — kicking off a bloodbath in the
city's sex trade as Tren de Aragua took over.
In parts of South America, the gang issues warnings on letters with a logo and
an AK-style rifle as letterheads.
The border crisis has allowed Tren de Aragua members to enter the United States
by claiming asylum. REUTERS
Law enforcement database information seen by The Post shows examples of gang
tattoos photographed on Tren de Aragua members, including AK-style rifles and
trains. Source: New York Post
Other tattoos have included a silhouette of a basketball player and a name under
a crown. The group wears "23" basketball jerseys like LeBron James and Michael
Jordan. Source: New York Post
Border Patrol issued this picture of an arrested Tren de Aragua member last
October, showing his crown tattoo. US CBP
The NYPD has arrested two men in connection to a crew of migrants who have been
stealing cellphones while riding mopeds. NYPD
Cleyber Andrade, 19, and Juan Uzcatgui, 23, are allegedly connected to a ring
responsible for 62 instances of grand larceny. NYPD
Young men with scooters are easy for the gang to find at New York's shelters for
the new arrivals, including the Roosevelt Hotel on East 46th Street in Midtown
Manhattan. Seth Gottfried
This was the stash house in the Bronx where police found 22 stolen phones in a
raid last Monday. The tactics the gang caught by the NYPD used are identical
those of Tren de Aragua, sources tell The Post. Google Maps
The phones stolen in New York are sent to Bogotá, Colombia, where they are
wiped, reprogrammed and sold by Tren de Aragua operatives. The gang's fronts in
the city deal with stolen phones from across South America, and now the US. AFP
via Getty Images
This is "El Niño Guerrero" or "Warrior Kid," the 40-year-old founder of Tren de
Aragua — who could be on the loose in the United States. Venezuelan Interior
Ministry
"El Niño Guerrero," real name Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, is wanted by
Venezuelan authorities and has an Interpol red notice out for him. Venezuelan
Interior Ministry
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