Feds bust three migrants after raiding NYC home of gun-toting, drug dealing squatters — just a day after Post report on Bronx chaos
Federal agents arrested three people during a Wednesday raid at the Bronx home of a group of gun-toting, drug-dealing migrant squatters — as immigration authorities moved to deport one of the crew previously busted at the troublesome house.
The Homeland Security raid came a day after The Post reported on the chaos the squatters brought with them when they took over the multifamily dwelling, ending with eight migrants busted on gun and drug charges last week.
One of the men arrested Wednesday — Hector Desousa-Villalta, 24 — was featured on The Post’s front page after he allegedly flashed a pistol at someone on the property March 27, leading to a 911 call and the discovery of the squatter gang.
Two other people — Yoessy Pino Castillo, 20, and Yojairo Martinez, 42 — were also arrested by about a dozen federal agents Wednesday afternoon, law enforcement sources told The Post.
A spokesperson for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency confirmed the raids, but wouldn’t give specific information.
Meanwhile, Desousa-Villalta told The Post that he planned on getting out of the home.
“I’m moving,” he said. “They tricked me into living there.”
The feds might agree that Desousa-Villalta is moving but not anywhere close — law-enforcement sources told The Post that ICE plans to deport him.
The NYPD collared the group of squatters — who set up shop across the street from PS 56 on Hull Avenue in the borough’s Norwood section — after Desousa-Villalta pulled a 9 mm CZ pistol and pointed it at someone in an alley near the house, police said.
But a Bronx Criminal Court judge cut him loose alongside five others taken from the same house.
Only two — Javier Alborno and Miguel Vaamondes-Barrios — were held on bail after their hearings.
It remained unclear Wednesday why some were remanded and some were cut loose — even though they all were hit with the same charges.
Alborno was ordered held on $100,000 bail or $300,000 bond after police found him cradling a 9mm pistol under his arm and with several other firearms in an orange backpack in his possession, court papers said.
But Desousa-Villalta, who cops said also had a gun on him, was was cut loose on supervised release despite the district attorney’s request that Bowen set bail at $150,000 cash or $450,000 bond.
The evidence tying some of the other men arrested directly to the guns and drugs is stronger in some cases than others, according to a source familiar with the case.
For example, a Bronx prosecutor admitted in court that the DA’s office had no information linking Johan Cardenas Silva directly to the guns or cocaine found in the apartment, the source said. Silva was released.
A lawyer for Martinez said his client was sleeping inside a separate room in the three-bedroom apartment when the cops stormed in, the source said. Prosecutors admitted that they didn’t have evidence directly tying him to the drugs or guns either. Martinez was released as well.
The state’s Office of Court Administration wouldn’t say why the defendants were treated differently.
“We don’t comment on bail decisions except to say that in cases like these in New York, judges have discretion in making bail decisions in accordance with the law and based solely on an individualized assessment of a defendant’s risk of flight,” Al Baker, the agency spokesperson, said in an email.
Regardless, the feds will likely have their hands full, even though New York City’s sanctuary policies declare that local cops can’t notify ICE when an undocumented immigrant is in custody.
Four of the squatters — Desousa-Villalta, Silva, Jefferson Orlando Abreau and Yerbin Lozado-Munoz — were previously turned away from border checkpoints because they weren’t permitted to enter the country, law enforcement sources said.
Although some of them have previous records — such as Desousa-Villalta, who allegedly shot another migrant in the leg last summer, and Javier Alborno, who has shoplifting charges in New Jersey — the squatter gang doesn’t appear to have any connections to criminal gangs overseas, law enforcement sources said.
Meanwhile, an upstairs neighbor complained to The Post on Wednesday about how rowdy the group was during their stay.
“It’s a lot of people living there,” the 26-year-old woman said. “I saw a lot of people coming and going. I am not sure how many people [there were].”
The ordeal started when one woman moved into the basement and started renting rooms to other people. Then she left the property, the neighbor said.
The new tenants were messy, played their music too loud and didn’t pay any bills, frustrating the landlord to no end, she added.
“They would start the music from 1 a.m., all the way until like 7 a.m.,” she said. “They were playing Spanish music … on weekdays all the way into the weekend. We could sleep. We didn’t say anything to them.”
But she was happy that she and her family wouldn’t have to deal with it any longer.
“Now we’ll have some peace,” she said. “We don’t have to live with that anymore.”
