The dangerous Venezuelan street gang, Tren de Aragua, has been recruiting teenagers dubbed their “Devils” to commit armed robberies across New York City, according to reports.
The New York Post detailed the long criminal record of a 15-year-old Venezuelan migrant who only entered the country through the Texas border in May 2023 but already has nearly a dozen arrests for violent crimes, including assault and robbery, in the Big Apple. The teen, the paper says, is typical of those recruited by Tren de Aragua (TdA).
The teen — who was not named because he is underage — was apparently recruited into the Los Diablos de la 42 (Spanish for “Devils of 42nd Street”) while he was living in a government-funded shelter in Manhattan. He then became part of a crew of some 20 teens who have been committing violent robberies across the city.
The teen has been arrested and charged with committing robberies on mass transit, around Times Square, and at various other spots across New York City. Each time he’s been charged as a juvenile and released.
Jason Savino, the NYPD’s Assistant Chief of Detectives, recently told the media that these same 20 teen gang members are responsible for 50 recent 42nd Street robberies. “And out of those 20 individuals, every single one of them is out on the streets today,” he added.
The paper adds that this teen and many others like him are recruited from the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown, which is City Hall’s main intake center for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s illegal migrants that have flooded the city.
Tren de Aragua is reportedly recruiting kids from the ages of 11 to 17 because New York city raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18 in 2018, a law that has allowed the Venezuelan gangsters to fill their crews with young teens who are charged with doing the gang’s dirty work.
“Young kids are the primary target for recruitment of gangs,” a source at the Department of Homeland Security told the paper. “Their young, moldable, vulnerable and eager to please minds are easier to lure in than those who have matured more in life.”
The source added, “Wanting to please a male father figure is something is something [sic] all young boys are eager to do. They jump at the opportunity to feel involved with something that seems important.”
In its recent report on the growing threat of Tren de Aragua, the Heritage Foundation warns that TdA is one of the most violent and ruthless gangs threatening Americans today.
“Tren de Aragua is one of the most ruthless gangs on the planet and the Biden-Harris administration is doing virtually nothing to stop them from entering the United States,” Heritage’s Director of Border Security and Immigration Center Lora Ries said.
“The administration’s mass release and parole of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans into the country has been a disaster. The result has included robberies, murders, and sex trafficking of innocent Americans,” Ries added.
The report found that a growing number of crimes attributed to TdA have been reported across the United States, including in states like Georgia, Illinois, New York, and Texas, to name just a few.
Further, Heritage reported, “There has been a reported 25 percent drop in violent deaths in Venezuela from 2021 to 2022. It is not implausible to postulate a link to Venezuela’s export of thousands of young criminals, many to the U.S.”
The group goes on to call for the immediate end to Joe Biden’s mass “parole” system that allows hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans to stream across the border with little to no vetting or tracking.
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