Meet one of Tren de Aragua’s ‘Little Devils’ — a 15-year-old migrant terrorizing New York City in armed robberies
Meet one of Tren de Aragua’s “Little Devils.”
A 15-year-old Venezuelan migrant believed to be part of a violent crew of young gang members terrorizing the city has been busted at least 10 times this year, according to law-enforcement sources.
But despite his lengthy rap sheet, the teen thug has been allowed to continue roaming the streets — and even stay at taxpayer-funded shelters.
“The politicians have diminished our criminal justice system to mere paper tiger,” one frustrated source said.
“There is no deterrence,” the source added. “You have a 15 year old who continues to treat our city like his personal video game.”
The teen is part of “Los Diablos de la 42” — Spanish for “Little Devils of 42nd Street” — a crew of about 20 young migrant targeting locals and tourists alike in armed robberies around Times Square and other parts of the city, according to sources.
The youngster crossed the US-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, in May 2023, according to federal immigration sources.
Detained by border authorities along with his family, he was eventually released pending immigration proceedings, the first hearing of which is scheduled for next month, officials said.
It is unclear when the teen showed up in Manhattan, but by May of this year, he had allegedly joined the Diablos crew, which sources have said is run out of the city-funded Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter in Midtown.
On May 28, the teen was allegedly among three young toughs who surrounded two straphangers on a 7 train in Queens and attacked them with brass knuckles and fists, according to the sources. He was charged with first-degree robbery.
Less than a week later on June 2, he was busted again for first-degree robbery for robbing three people at knifepoint on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, the sources said.
Then on July 8, he allegedly snatched someone’s phone inside Central Park and was hit with second-degree robbery raps.
Later that month, on July 20, he was busted in two incidents, according to sources, one of them in which a group of about eight perps punched a victim and stole their phone on East 60th Street, a block from the park.
In the other incident, he’s accused of snatching the chain of a passenger on the No. 4 train at Lexington Avenue and 59th Street, the sources said.
On Aug. 9, he allegedly again targeted a straphanger — this time allegedly grabbing their phone and wallet on an F train in Midtown, according to the sources.
Later that month on Aug. 14, the teen and another young suspect allegedly pulled a knife on someone a block from Times Square and snatched their phone.
He was busted a third time that month, on Aug. 27, for stealing someone’s chain near Penn Plaza in Midtown, the sources said.
Just last month, on Sept. 2, he was accused of stealing a 16-year-old boy’s chain on West 43rd Street and 12th Avenue, per the sources.
Sources said at least one additional case against the teen has been sealed, and more details on the others were not available because he is charged as a juvenile.
Despite him allegedly taking part in a long-running pattern of violence, the “little devil” continues to remain free pending the outcome of the cases, sources said.
According to sources, he is also still believed to be living somewhere in the city’s tax-funded migrant shelter system.
The “Diablos” are recruited from within the shelters, primarily the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown which serves as the intake center for the flood of migrants who have entered the city since 2022.
Recruited by adult Tren de Aragua members, newly anointed gangbangers as young as 11 are dispatched to wreak havoc — often getting a slap on the wrist because of their age.
In 2018, state lawmakers implemented the “Raise the Age” statute, which increased the age of criminal responsibility to 18. Prior to the law teens as young as 16 could be automatically 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, save for a handful of violent felonies.
“Young kids are the primary target for recruitment of gangs,” a source at the Department of Homeland Security told The Post on Tuesday. “Their young, moldable, vulnerable and eager to please minds are easier to lure in than those who have matured more in life.
“Wanting to please a male father figure is something is something all young boys are eager to do,” the source said. “They jump at the opportunity to feel involved with something that seems important.”