After three months on the run, NYPD detectives in the Bronx apprehended the fugitive ringleader of an interstate migrant moped gang that caused havoc in the Big Apple.
Last week, while riding a scooter without a helmet, law enforcement sources apprehended Victor Parra, 30, a key member of the vicious squad that sold stolen goods from the five boroughs to comrades in Florida and contacts in South America. He is currently in custody.
Related posts
According to accounts, the scooter had Texas plates.
Parra & Franco New York’s Finest arrested Alexander Peraza Navas in February, allegedly operating the enterprise from a Bronx apartment until investigators dismantled the ring.
“Everyone wants to bastardize quality of life—lower-level enforcement—but that’s how you create a safe and orderly society,” a law enforcement insider stated.
“Enforcing minor violations like helmet laws [state vehicle and traffic laws] helps bring in bigger fish,” the insider said. “We got the bad guy.”
Parra, a Venezuelan migrant, allegedly fled the city as authorities closed in on the illegal operation and sought refuge in Chicago and Miami before returning to the five boroughs, according to sources.
That gang was so arrogant that Navas boasted to cops after his arrest, “In a million years, I never thought you’d catch me,” sources told The Post at the time.
“It’s much bigger than me,” the alleged migrant thief informed investigators.
The two-wheeled gang was associated with heists in New York City, New Jersey, Yonkers, and Florida. Navas participated in two carjackings and six gunpoint robberies prior to his arrest on a shoplifting charge at a Macy’s department store in Yonkers on December 17.
Parra and Navas allegedly made repeated visits to Florida to offload stolen goods.
Authorities said the merchandise was fenced through a Texas-based company operated by a Venezuelan husband-and-wife pair, with the revenues tied to excessive expenditures, including the installation of a swimming pool in Colombia, according to sources.
The team may have illegally brought migrants into the US to participate in the heist operation.
Unsettling surveillance footage captured some of the gang’s heists.
According to online records, Parra is being jailed on Rikers Island on $50,000 bail or $100,000 bond for possession of stolen items and other offenses.
He released the two other passengers on the moped with him without charging them.
