Horrific video shows woman dragged along NYC street by migrant moped gang linked to dozens of brazen attacks, 62 grand larcenies
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.”
The NYPD outlined the gang’s vicious tactics in a video clip posted online, which showed a moped-borne robber dragging Irina Panteleeva, 62, across the pavement in front of Bay Gourmet Deli Juice Bar on Sheepshead Bay Road just three days after Christmas.
The thieves made off with Panteleeva’s bag, keys, phone, credit cards, and glasses — all while she careened through the air and slammed into a metal bike rack.
“I feel bad, I feel bad,” Panteleeva told The Post over the phone. “The thieves stole my bag.”
Nesat Mamudoski, 69, her building super, told The Post that the bruised and battered victim was terrified after the attack and had him change her apartment lock.
“She’s a nice lady, a good person,” Mamudoski said of Panteleeva, labeling her attackers “scumbags.”
“I came here 44 years ago from Yugoslavia and I had respect for the USA,” he said. “Not like these thieves.”
Authorities hoped to arrest the ringleader Monday after Andrade and Uzcatgui gave him up, sources said.
Cops have also identified six other people connected to the ring: Yan Jimenez, 25, of Manhattan; Anthony Ramos, 21, of Manhattan; Richard Saledo, 21, of the Bronx; Beike Jimenez, 21, of the Bronx; Maria Manaura, 32, of Manhattan; and Samuel Castro, 27, of Queens, according to sources.
All have previous grand larceny arrests for criminal activity that sources say is related to the conspiracy, which has been terrorizing the city since about mid-November.
But they’re all free without bail ahead of their impending court dates, sources said.
At a separate press conference at One Police Plaza on Monday, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said the alleged suspects are part of a “sophisticated criminal enterprise” made up of recently arrived immigrants.
Parra, who cops said entered the US in 2023, would send specific orders to henchmen in his 14-member crew detailing the kind of phone he was looking for.
“Parra will blast out a message via WhatsApp that he is looking for phones,” Kenny said. “And then the text will say, ‘I have money, I’m available, go get ’em.’”
Scooter drivers make $100 a day, and the actual phone snatcher could make $300 to $600 per stolen device, according to cops.
Once he had the phones in hand, Parra would have a hacker break into financial or banking apps so they could make fraudulent buys, Kenny said.
After they’d cleaned out their victim, Parra would send the phone to buyers in cities like Miami or Houston — or foreign countries like Colombia or Venezuela, police officials said.
“This network of thieves predominantly live in the migrant shelter system,” Kenny said. “They use social media platforms to organize and coordinate this. This is how they operate.”
Although cops have linked 62 incidents across the city to the group, they may have been involved in as many as 150, police officials said.
Cops are still searching for seven people connected to the ring. Three of them are known and wanted, though the other four haven’t been identified yet, officials said.
The NYPD also recovered 22 phones at the Bronx residence they raided this morning, officials said.
The suspects have allegedly taken hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of electronics, though cops couldn’t pinpoint the exact amount.
The robbery ring — and others like it — worry law enforcement specifically because the migrants often have multiple aliases and swap identities and birthdays, turning them into so-called “ghost perps” who become very hard to track, sources said.
Andrade and Uzcatgui, who know each other from Colombia, were also arrested on Friday for allegedly committing back-to-back phone snatches on a stolen moped in Lower Manhattan.
Police sources say the two fled from Manhattan over the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, but law enforcement spotted them on the BQE and arrested them afterward in Queens.
During the pursuit, the two dumped a bag that a good Samaritan later turned in at the 114th Precinct. Sources say it had three cell phones in it — two belonging to their victims and one belonging to one of the suspects.
At some point after the arrest, the two gave up information that helped secure Monday’s warrant, which was ostensibly meant to snag Parra.
Both men were charged individually Saturday with grand larceny for stealing a moped, resisting arrest, and stolen property offenses.
“We want to be extremely clear,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the press conference. “It doesn’t matter if a person is a migrant, an asylum seeker or the person is a long-term New Yorker — you break the law, you will be investigated and it will be handled by our criminal justice system.
“You should not be allowed to walk the streets of the city of New York if you are committing any form of criminal behavior that’s impacting the quality of life of New Yorkers,” he continued.
“These people do not have a license to steal in our city.”
Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy
