Fugitive ringleader of NYC migrant moped gang caught after 3 months on the run — because of helmet violation: sources

Metro

By Joe Marino and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

The fugitive ringleader of an interstate migrant moped gang that wreaked havoc in the Big Apple used to be busted through NYPD law enforcement officials in the Bronx after 3 months on the lam, The Post has discovered.

Victor Parra, 30, a bigwig in the ruthless workforce that peddled stolen items from the 5 boroughs to cohorts in Florida – and to contacts in South America, used to be nabbed driving a moped with no helmet final week and is now in custody, regulation enforcement sources mentioned Monday.

The scooter had Texas plates, in line with the sources.

Parra and Franco Alexander Peraza Navas, who used to be picked up through New York’s Finest in February, allegedly ran the operation from a Bronx condominium till investigators broke up the ring.

“Everyone wants to bastardize quality of life – lower level enforcement – but that’s how you create a safe and orderly society,” a regulation enforcement supply mentioned.

“Enforcing minor violations like helmet laws, [state Vehicle and Traffic Law], helps bring in bigger fish,” the supply mentioned. “We got the bad guy.”

Parra, a Venezuelan migrant, allegedly fled the town as law enforcement officials closed in on the illicit operation, and used to be hiding out in Chicago and Miami sooner than he returned to the 5 boroughs, the sources mentioned.

That gang used to be so cocky that Navas boasted to law enforcement officials after his arrest that, “In a million years I never thought you’d catch me,” sources advised The Post at the time.

“It’s much bigger than me,” the accused migrant criminal advised detectives.

The two-wheeled workforce used to be connected to heists in New York City, New Jersey, Yonkers and Florida – with Navas tied to 2 carjackings and 6 gunpoint robberies till he used to be picked up on a shoplifting rap at a Macy’s division retailer in Yonkers on Dec. 17.

Parra and Navas allegedly made common journeys to the Sunshine State to sell off the stolen items.

Authorities mentioned the products used to be fenced thru a Texas-based corporate owned through a Venezuelan husband-and spouse workforce, with the proceeds connected to lavish spending, together with the building of a swimming pool put in in Colombia, the sources mentioned.

The workforce could also be accused of smuggling migrants into the US illegally to enroll in the theft workforce.

Some of the gang’s heists had been caught on annoying surveillance photos.

Parra is charged with ownership of stolen belongings and different fees and is being held on Rikers Island on $50,000 bail or a $100,000 bond, on-line information display.

Two folks driving on the moped when he used to be busted had been launched with out fees.