Venezuelan gang smuggles guns into NYC migrant shelters in food delivery bags, accused cop-shooter admits
A migrant accused of shooting two NYPD officers claimed a vicious Venezuelan gang has been smuggling guns into city-run shelters by stuffing them infood delivery bags, prosecutors revealed Wednesday.
Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, 19, will be placed in protective custody after his explosive accusations against the notorious Tren de Aragua gang during a Queens criminal court hearing.
Mata admitted in hospital-bed confessions that he’s a gang member who two fellow Tren de Aragua goons tapped to commit robberies, according to audio recordings read by prosecutors.
He told cops he worked for DoorDash, and received the gun he used to shoot police from a friend who had stashed it in a bag – a scheme that gang members used to get weapons past security at taxpayer-funded migrant shelters, prosecutors said.
“Tren de Aragua members are smuggling firearms into city shelters in food delivery packages – that way they don’t have to go through the metal detectors,” Castro Mata squealed to police after turning on the crew, the recordings show.
Mata also said it’s common for Tren de Aragua crooks to “shoot at police” because Venezuelan cops “shoot gang members for minor infractions.”
The shocking revelations came as Castro Mata, a homeless Venezuelan migrant who illegally entered the US last year, was arraigned on a whopping 20-count indictment handed down by a Queens grand jury.
A crowd of 66 uniformed NYPD officers packed the courtroom, drawing an expression of frozen shock on Mata’s face as he entered.
He faces two counts of attempted murder and a slew of other criminal offenses for allegedly shooting Officers Christopher Abreu and Richard Yarusso, both 26, early June 3 as the cops tried to conduct a traffic stop on the scooter-riding migrant.
Prosecutors said Castro Mata, during a wild chase, pulled a .380-caliber Hi-Point pistol on Yarusso and fired it into the cop’s chest at point-blank range.
He also shot Abreu in the leg before cops returned fire and hit him in the ankle, officials said.
Castro Mata, from a hospital bed, maintained hours after the shooting that he didn’t mean to shoot the NYPD officers — an assertion that goes against bodycam video, at least as described by police brass.
“When the cops stopped me, I ran because I was scared,” Mata said, according to a statement read by prosecutors.
“I stopped and took out the gun to show the officers and a round went off. That’s when the cop shot me. I didn’t pull the trigger. The gun went off once.”
Castro Mata, who said he delivered for DoorDash, said a friend gave him the gun inside a bag after work and asked him to keep it, prosecutors said.
DoorDash didn’t have any record of a person with Mata’s name working for the app, according to the company.
The now-admitted gang member’s defense attorney, besides entering a not guilty plea, only spoke during the hearing to ask that Castro Mata — who was carted into the courtroom in a wheelchair, with his lower right leg bandaged and a hospital tag on his wrist — be placed in protective custody.
Judge Kenneth C. Holder granted the request, signaling that Mata’s statements against the bloodthirsty Tren de Aragua potentially made the migrant a target. He also ordered Mata held without bail.
When asked if the statements being read into the record put the bullseye on Mata, District Attorney Melinda Katz nodded as she told The Post.
“We’d like to make sure that he comes to trial,” she said. “And is held accountable for attempted murder of two counts, against the police officers.”
