Migrant gang Tren de Aragua and ‘associates’ orchestrated 517 arrests in NYC this year: sources

Members of the brutal Tren de Aragua gang, its associates and suspected co-conspirators have been arrested 517 times across the city this year – with as many as 295 arrests taking place near Midtown Manhattan’s popular tourist spots, crime statistics show reviewed by The Post.

The NYPD has identified 41 migrant gangbangers in the Venezuelan crew — not including an affiliated youth crew and other associates — who have made 143 arrests alone, with nearly half of the bookings in Midtown’s busiest shopping areas since January, according to the data.

But the network’s reach extends much further, with its affiliated gang Los Diablos de la 42 and other co-defendants – and police believe there are more than 200 members of TDA yet to be documented.

“If you go back two years — which is about when we think they first arrived — we made 45% more arrests than we did two years ago,” a law enforcement source said. “This is a gang that conspires to make money from committing crimes.”

About 48% of the arrests of the 41 identified TDA members occurred in eight downtown Manhattan districts, including landmarks such as Times Square, Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall.

In addition to the 41 gang members identified by the NYPD, TDA’s criminal web extends even beyond their ranks, sources said.

The gang has also given birth to a baby-faced offshoot, whose members are as young as 11 years old and call themselves “Diablos de la 42” – which translates to “devils of 42nd Street.”

TDA, Diablos – and other “associates” and co-defendants – were arrested 517 times citywide in early October, with 57% of those arrests, or 295 arrests, occurring in Midtown, the statistics show.

“If you add associates and co-defendants not in the (NYPD gang) database, there are 80 more individuals who are candidates for the database, and potentially hundreds as arrest associates in other crimes,” the law enforcement source said.

“If you include those associates, that’s 295 of the 517 total arrests we’ve made in Midtown and neighboring counties,” the source said. “These are TDA, (Diablos) and their employees. That’s 57%, impacting crime in the 14th, 18th, 17th and 19th districts. It’s not just one area.”

Most arrests of migrants were on charges of theft and grand larceny, but also included assault and auto theft, the data show.

One of the most notorious TDA gangbangers busted in the city is Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, 19, who allegedly admitted in a hospital bed to being part of a Tren heist crew posing as food deliverers to commit armed robberies.

Castro Mata is now in jail on charges of attempted murder allegedly shooting two NYPD officers.

Also on the NYPD Tren gang list are Kelvin Servita Arocha, 20, and Wilson Juarez, 22, part of a gang of cowardly migrants who jumped two police officers in Times Square in January and ran away.

Both were identified as gang members amid outrage over the video attack on officers.

A troublesome junior gang member named ‘Little Devil’ was arrested eleven times in less than five months before he was finally imprisoned by a judge after The Post exposed his exploits.

The teen terror, whose name is being withheld due to his age, crossed the US border into Texas in May 2023 and eventually ended up at the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown with his mother before reportedly moving on. are robberies and theftThis is evident from sources and court reports.

The petty thug is one of five teens identified as Diablo members, sources said.

“As an agency, we don’t just throw someone into a database,” said NYPD Chief of Police John Chell. “We are disciplined with who we put in the database. We are aware of co-defendants among our TdA members and LDDL42 members, and we are investigating this process. We just don’t throw anyone in.”

The Diablos juveniles pose a particular problem to law enforcement because of New York State’s lenient treatment of younger criminal defendants.

The state’s “Raise the Age” law, passed in 2017, raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18. Previously, young people from the age of 16 could automatically be tried by the adult court.

In a damning report last week, the city’s Department of Investigation revealed that two are from the Big Apple juvenile detention centers are overwhelmed with more violent residents aged 21 and over.

Police are also handcuffed by 2019 criminal justice reforms, which, among other things, ban judges from setting bail for most crimes, including the non-violent charges of theft and robbery for which many migrant gang members are arrested.

Meanwhile, Tren has a criminal foothold in the five boroughsincluding the sale of weapons and drugs, mainly a deadly fentanyl mix called Tussi, or “pink cocaine.”

Authorities have also linked the gang to sex trafficking, including a long stretch of Roosevelt Avenue in Queens known as the “Market of Sweethearts,” by forcing migrant women into prostitution to pay excessive smuggling costs.