Meet one of Tren de Aragua’s trouble-shooting ‘Little Devils’

Meet one of the “Little Devils” of Tren de Aragua.

A 15-year-old Venezuelan migrant is believed to be part of Violent group of youth gang members The city has been busted for terrorizing the city at least 10 times this year, according to law-enforcement sources.

But despite his long rap sheet, the teen thug has been allowed to continue roaming the streets – and even been allowed to live in taxpayer-funded shelters.

“Politicians have reduced our criminal justice system to a mere paper tiger,” said one frustrated source.

“There’s no stopping it,” the source said. “You have a 15-year-old who treats our city like his personal video game.”

The teen is part of “Los Diablos de la 42” – Spanish for “The Little Devils of 42nd Street” – a gang of about 20 young immigrants who engage in armed robberies around Times Square and other parts of the city, targeting locals and tourists alike. Targets formally. According to sources,

According to federal immigration sources, Young crossed the US-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas in May 2023.

After being detained with his family by border officials, he was eventually released pending immigration proceedings, the first hearing of which is scheduled for next month, officials said.

It’s unclear when the teen arrived in Manhattan, but by May of this year, he had reportedly joined the Diablos Crew, which sources said was based out of the city-funded Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter in Midtown. Is gone.

According to sources, on May 28, the teen was allegedly among three young rowdy men who surrounded two straphangers on the 7 train in Queens and attacked them with brass knuckles and fists. He was charged with first-degree robbery.

Less than a week later, he was arrested again on first-degree robbery charges for robbing three people at knifepoint on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens on June 2, sources said.

Then on July 8 he allegedly snatched someone’s phone inside central park And he was charged with second-degree robbery.

According to sources, later that month, on July 20, he was busted in two incidents, one of them in which a group of about eight people punched a victim and stabbed him on East 60th Street, a block away from the park. Stolen the phone.

In the second incident, he is accused of snatching a chain from a passenger on the No. 4 train at Lexington Avenue and 59th Street, sources said.

According to sources, on August 9, she allegedly targeted a straphanger again – this time allegedly snatching their phone and wallet while on an F train in Midtown.

Later that month on August 14, the teen and another young suspect allegedly pulled a knife on someone just off Times Square and snatched their phone.

On August 27 that month, he was caught for the third time for stealing someone’s chain near Penn Plaza in Midtown, sources said.

According to sources, last month, on September 2, he was accused of stealing a chain belonging to a 16-year-old boy at West 43rd Street and 12th Avenue.

At least one additional case against the teen has been sealed, and not much information is available about the others because they are charged as juveniles, the sources said.

Despite allegedly participating in a long-running pattern of violence, the “little devil” remains free pending the outcome of the cases, sources said.

According to sources, he is believed to still be living somewhere in the city’s tax-funded migrant shelter system.

“Diablos” are Recruited from within sheltersPrimarily the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown which serves as the intake center for the flood of immigrants entering the city starting in 2022.

Recruited by adult Tren de Aragua members, newly anointed gangbangers as young as 11 are sent to wreak havoc – often with a slap on the wrist due to their age.

In 2018, state lawmakers introduced a “raise the age” law, which The age of criminal responsibility was increased to 18 years.Before the law, juveniles under the age of 16 could automatically be charged as an adult.

The following year, the legislature in Albany began passing a series of criminal justice reforms that barred judges from setting bail for suspects in most crimes, except for a handful of violent felonies.

“Young children are primary targets for recruitment into gangs,” a source at the Department of Homeland Security told The Post on Tuesday. “People with their young, malleable, vulnerable and eager to please minds are easier to seduce than those who have become more mature in life.

“Wanting to please a father figure is something all young boys are eager to do,” the source said. “They take advantage of the opportunity to feel involved in something that feels important.”