Opinion

The ghost criminals of New York

More than 60 women have had their phones and sometimes purses snatched by thieves on mopeds in recent weeks in New York City. Just last week, the New York City Police Department released surveillance video of a 52-year-old woman being dragged violently by thieves on a scooter as they robbed her of her bag, phone, credit cards, keys, glasses, identification, and $60.

“They’re essentially ghost criminals,” NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said. “No criminal history. No photos. No cellphone. Sometimes we’re even unclear on name or a date of birth.”

Who are these ghost criminals, and how did they get to New York?

They are all migrants, mostly from Venezuela, and they were all released into the country by President Joe Biden.

New York Mayor Eric Adams, left center, joins investigators and specialized teams as they prepare to carry out a search warrant on Feb. 5, 2024. The raid targeting suspects in a cell phone theft ring came as Adams and police officials have been promising a crackdown on crimes committed by migrants, following a brawl between migrants and police officers in Times Square. (Office of New York City Police Department Assistant Commissioner Kaz Daughtry via AP)

“This network of thieves predominantly live in the migrant shelter system,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said. “The crimes in this pattern involved multiple thieves on mopeds, snatching cellphones and purses of victims. These thieves would ride up behind their victims on the sidewalk, steal their property, and then make their getaway.”

The NYPD raided the apartment of the ringleader, Victor Parra, last week, arresting five people, all of them migrants. Parra, however, escaped. 

Parra reportedly pays the moped drivers $100 a day, and the thieves receive $300-$600 a phone. Once Parra has paid his conspirators for the phones, the devices are then hacked to drain any bank accounts connected to the phones. The phones themselves are then sent to Colombia where they are wiped and resold.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who accompanied NYPD on the raid of Parra’s apartment, has had enough of these migrant criminals and is even considering reversing the city’s decades-old sanctuary city policy. “If they’re found guilty and they do their time, they should be deported,” Adams said. “You should not be allowed to walk the streets of New York.”

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“This is a national problem,” Adams added. “We need a national solution.”

Adams is right. The Biden border crisis is a national problem. And the solution is for President Joe Biden to stop catching and illegally releasing migrants into the country, and instead reimplement the popular and successful “Remain in Mexico” program.

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