NEW YORK (PIX11) – Police busted an alleged citywide robbery pattern Monday involving migrants who recently arrived in New York City, according to the NYPD.
PIX11 News was there during a pre-dawn raid in the Bronx. Police executed a search warrant for a group that’s been wreaking havoc on several neighborhoods, according to authorities.
The suspects are believed to be part of an organized criminal enterprise and investigators have connected them to at least 60 incidents, police said. The group allegedly used stolen mopeds to target victims and snatch purses and cellphones among other items, according to the NYPD.
Several people were arrested in the raid, including a man who allegedly acted as the group’s IT technician to crack stolen devices.
Victor Parra, 30, who came to New York from Venezuela last year, is the alleged leader of the robbery crew, police said.
Parra recruited his accomplices by allegedly blasting WhatsApp messages looking for volunteers, officials said. The texts would specify the phone models he was looking for.
“I have money. I’m available. Go get them,” Parra allegedly says in the WhatsApp messages, police said.
The phones would then be sent to Parra, where he paid a tech guy to hack the phones clear out the victims’ bank accounts, and make fraudulent purchases, police said. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been stolen from the victims.
The scooter operators made $100 a day and the phone snatchers were paid between $300-$600 per phone, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
“These perpetrators are part of a sophisticated criminal enterprise made up of immigrants who have recently arrived in the United States,” Kenny said at a press briefing Monday. “This network of thieves predominantly lives in the migrant shelter system.”
Police have identified 14 members of the crew. Seven were arrested and three others are being investigated. Parra, their alleged leader, remained at large after authorities executed a search warrant at his Bronx home early Monday morning, police said.
Investigators have had difficulty tracking some of the suspects because there are no photos, social media presence, or even names, in some cases, according to NYPD Commissioner Eddie Caban. Most of the suspects don’t know each other.
“They’re essentially ghost criminals,” Caban said.
Police are looking into whether the men seen on surveillance video attacking two NYPD officers in Times Square are also part of the same pattern.
Kenny said it took several months for investigators to connect the dots and link the suspects to the robbery pattern. Police said they have surveillance video of some of the incidents.
Mayor Eric Adams was with the NYPD during the early morning raid in the Bronx.
“Those who are committing crimes like what have witnessed — the assault on police officers and now we are finding out that they are part of a robbery pattern and grand larceny pattern — it is what we are going to crack down on,” Adams said. “It doesn’t matter where you are from, no matter who you are, if you break the law you are going to feel the full weight of this police department.”
