Two men were busted in the Bronx as part of a moped-riding migrant crew that has been snatching cellphones right out of New Yorkers’ hands in daring bursts of street crime — and police sources say they’ve already flipped on the group’s ringleader.
The two suspects, Cleyber Andrade, 19, and Juan Uzcatgui, 23, are allegedly part of a wider ring whose members are connected to 62 different instances of grand larceny throughout the Big Apple — including a shocking, caught-on-video heist in which a 62-year-old woman was brutally dragged down a Brooklyn street, police sources told The Post.
Cops are still searching for the ringleader, a Venezuelan migrant named Victor Parra, 30, of the Bronx, who was cut loose by a judge in December after getting picked up for grand larceny, sources said.
At a Monday press conference, NYPD Inspector Nicholas Fiore said Parra has convinced others to “go do his dirty work to grab phones and stuff.”
“He’s the big target,” Fiore said in a video posted to X. “He’s caused a lot of problems in New York City. And hopefully we’ll grab him, we get some headway on this.”