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New York City is now battling teen gang activity connected to Venezuela’s dangerous Tren de Aragua gang.
NYPD Detective Bureau Asst. Chief Jason Savino warned law enforcement has seen a “shocking” progression with the violence, Tuesday, on “Fox & Friends.”
“We’re talking 20 individuals arrested a total of 50 times… and we have a mix-match of crimes embedded in those. We have anywhere from snatches to what I call wolfpack robberies, where anywhere between five and 15 individuals surround tourists and take their property. We have gunpoint robberies, knifepoint robberies. And these individuals are out, and it’s concerning,” he said.
VENEZUELAN TREN DE ARAGUA GANG RECRUITING KIDS FROM TEXAS MIDDLE SCHOOLS
To make matters worse, Savino said the young criminals are getting away with their crimes, progressing from thefts to more serious offenses.
“Why? Because their original criminality did not have consequences. And when criminality doesn’t have consequences, it actually encourages more criminality. And the individuals that actually engage in that criminality become empowered.”
“They do get court dates, but they are afforded the opportunity to participate in programs, things like that. And like I said, it empowers them. What does that do? It certainly creates an atmosphere of empowerment,” he said.
Savino said the best they can do for now is, “build the best possible cases” to take them down, adding that juveniles create “tremendous” challenges.
“Their offenses aren’t bail eligible because in 2018, New York enacted a raise-the-law age, which means they cannot be held criminally responsible when they commit a crime,” New York Republican Councilwoman Joann Ariola explained on “Fox & Friends First.”
“They’re burglars, drug dealers. And they’re not even going to real court anymore because of Raise the Age.”
According to Ariola, once suspects are given a court date, they are released back into the city, where the NYPD are not allowed to enter shelters to keep tabs on them.
She placed blame directly on policies from the Biden-Harris administration.
“Biden-Harris issued 94 orders that within the first 100 days of their administration that undid all of Trump’s border protection policies, allowing 200,000 unvetted people from other countries, illegal migrants to enter our borders.”
“It’s extremely, extremely dangerous for our citizens of New York City.”
Fox News reached out to Mayor Eric Adams and the city council for statements but did not hear back.
The suspects, some as young as 11, are being housed in the former Roosevelt Hotel, which the city converted into a migrant shelter after an influx of border crossings thousands of miles away, the New York Post reported earlier this week.
The suspected gang members have been postioning pictures and videos of their guns online, according to investigators.
Still image from social media video shows suspected juvenile Tren de Aragua members based out of the Roosevelt Hotel, who have allegedly been attacking nearby Times Square in a string of robberies. (Obtained by New York Post)
Twenty members of a subset of the gang, calling itself “Los Diablos de lat 42” in reference to New York’s 42nd Street, have been arrested in connection with 50 separate crimes, according to Savino.
“It is a big deal,” he said. “We have a perfect storm of sorts where we have individuals in and around Times Square. This is our jam. This is the best the world has to offer, you know, And they’re brazen, ruthless. And that’s concerning.”
Nearly 200,000 asylum-seeking migrants have arrived in the Big Apple over the past year, according to city officials. More than half are expected to have their claims denied, but until that happens, they are technically considered in the U.S. legally.
As migrants continue to pour across the southern border, Tren de Aragua has expanded from its base in Venezuela into numerous U.S. cities, including New York and Chicago. The gang has also been linked to small town crimes, including in Aurora, Colorado, and Athens, Georgia, where the suspect in the murder of nursing student Laken Riley has been linked to suspected members.
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
