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Tren de Aragua’s ‘Little Devils’ poster child busted after allegedly attacking disabled teen
The poster child for Tren de Aragua’s baby-faced gang farm system was busted yet again Wednesday — this time for allegedly robbing a 16-year-old autistic boy on Staten Island, police sources told The Post.
The pint-sized Venezuelan vandal, who has at least a dozen busts on his rap sheet despite being just 15, is believed to be part of the “Little Devils” crew of young migrant gangbangers terrorizing the Big Apple.
Their notorious punk is now charged with second-degree robbery after cops nabbed him in a May 5 attack at the Staten Island Mall.
“It makes me sick these kids are still here,” the autistic victim’s mother said Wednesday. “They should have been deported a long time ago. I had to keep my son home for a week because he was so scared.
“He’s terrified that he’s not safe from this gang,” she griped. “If they’d been deported, my son wouldn’t have been jumped.”
The tiny terror and his crew are members of “Diablos de la 42” — or Devils of 42nd Street — an underage offshoot of Tda, the violent Venezuelan gang that has established a foothold in tax-funded Big Apple shelters.
“Short of murder, there is no mechanism to hold juvenile offenders accountable,” one law enforcement source griped.
“The individuals responsible for these crimes against some of the most vulnerable individuals — the disabled,” the source said. “They’re responsible for victimizing dozens, and it’s a revolving door.”
“Short of murder, there is no mechanism to hold juvenile offenders accountable,” one law enforcement source griped.
“The individuals responsible for these crimes against some of the most vulnerable individuals — the disabled,” the source said. “They’re responsible for victimizing dozens, and it’s a revolving door.”
The tiny terror is a member of “Diablos de la 42” — or Devils of 42nd Street — an underage offshoot of Tda, the violent Venezuelan gang that has established a foothold in tax-funded Big Apple shelters.
The NYPD has identified about 40 documented members of the Diablos, with 30 “associates” as young as 11 who help carry out mob robberies and assaults in Midtown and beyond, according to sources.
“They’re building quite the criminal resume,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Wednesday. “The first five, six robberies they commit, there’s no consequences. But they are steadily building a substantial criminal resume.
“They’re cowards. They won’t do anything one-on-one,” the chief added. “That’s their motive — wolfpack robberies against soft targets.”
But because they are minors, they typically get little more than a slap on the wrist under New York State’s lenient juvenile justice laws.
Albany lawmakers passed the “Raise the Age” law in 2018, increasing the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 18. The following year the state legislature went one step further, barring bail on most crimes.
It has been a boon for the underage migrant goons, including the “Little Devil,” who was busted with his 17-year-old accomplice on Wednesday.
The older suspect also has had numerous run-ins with the law, with collars in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island before the May 5 attack, police said.
Yet, both of their cases will now bounce to family court, where the proceedings are sealed and the penalties close to non-existent.
In the mini-gang’s latest crime, police sources said the 15-year-old migrant punk was one of at least four Diablo members who punched and kicked the young disabled victim.
The battered victim’s mom, a pharmacy technician and mother of two, said the teen came home black and blue from the cowardly beating — and traumatized by the unprovoked gang assault.
“These kids are here illegally, and they have gang ties,” she said. “ICE should have been waiting for them as soon as they came out of the precinct.”
The brazen gang, which is fond of posting their criminal escapades on social media, then allegedly snatched the battered victim’s bag and $38 in cash before fleeing, cops said.
“They weren’t in the mall to buy Mother’s Day gifts,” Kenny said.
In the latest example, police sources said the teen was part of at least four Diablo members that punched and kicked the disabled victim.
The gang then allegedly snatched the victim’s bag and $38 in cash before fleeing, cops said.
The victim, who sources described as being autistic, was injured but didn’t have to be hospitalized.
The NYPD on Tuesday had blasted out a surveillance image of one of the four young suspects they wanted to speak to in the wake of the ordeal.
It wasn’t clear, though, if the person of interest in the surveillance image was the same alleged poster child gangbanger or one of his thug pals.
The youngster, who immigration sources say crossed the US-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, in May 2023, was nabbed last October for allegedly pulling a knife on a man in Midtown and stealing his phone.
Last year, he allegedly went on a crime spree and was allegedly part of a crew who surrounded two straphangers on a 7 train in Queens and attacked them with brass knuckles on May 28, 2024, police said.
On June 2, he was charged with robbing three people at knifepoint on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, and six days later was accused of snatching a phone in Central Park.
In July, he was charged in two alleged incidents — ganging up on a victim to steal a phone on East 60th Street, and snatching a chain from a 4 train straphanger in Manhattan.
By early September, he had been busted for allegedly snatching chains and phones from victims in four more incidents, sources said.
“There is no deterrence,” a police source told The Post last year about the troublesome teen. “You have a 15-year-old who continues to treat the city like his personal video game.”
