Two of the people swept up in a multiborough cell phone robbery spree had been arrested for snatching phones in Manhattan just two days earlier — and were released without bail 12 hours before being arrested in the raid on a Bronx apartment, court documents reveal.
Cleyber Andrade, 20, and Juane Uzcatgui, 23, had just been released from Queens Criminal Court when NYPD cops and U.S. marshals raided the apartment on Bronx Park East near Adee Ave. in Allerton about 5:30 a.m. Monday.
Five other people were in the apartment, as well as 22 stolen phones and the IDs of several victims in the cellphone snatch scam, which has targeted residents in every borough except Staten Island, cops said.
Victor Parra, the 30-year-old accused ringleader of the robbery streak that includes 62 thefts involving both cell phone grabs and then hacking financial data mined from the phones, remains on the loose, cops said.
The robbery crew involves a number of migrants, cops said. Five migrants were arrested during Monday’s raid.
Andrade and Uzcatgui were accused of swiping phones from two unsuspecting victims on the Lower East Side late Thursday and early Friday, cops said. The two men were on a moped when they allegedly ripped the phones from their victims’ hands and sped over the Triborough Bridge into Queens.
Cops and an NYPD helicopter pursued the two robbery suspects who were seen putting the stolen phones, as well as one of their own, in a bag and dumping them off the side of the BQE, police said.
A good Samaritan found the bag and brought it to cops at the 114th Precinct stationhouse.
Cops tracked the phones back to Andrade and Uzcatugi and arrested them on Saturday. Both men were charged with criminal possession of stolen property and resisting arrest. Uzcatugi was also charged with grand larceny and petty larceny.
Both men were released without bail after seeing a judge Sunday evening, court documents show. Their immigration status was not immediately known.
The crew the two men are connected to is known for quick-hit phone snatches, sometimes taking the phones from their victims’ hands as they zip by on mopeds.
In one of the robberies, two moped-riding men approached a woman in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, on Jan. 23, grabbed her phone and dragged her down the sidewalk until she hit a bike rack. The men took off, leaving her on the pavement, startling video released by the NYPD shows.
The woman didn’t want to speak of the trauma she suffered when reached by phone Tuesday.
The crooks hack bank information from the phones and make illegal transactions in the U.S. and South America, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a press conference Monday.
If the victims acted quickly and put holds on their bank accounts, Parra would ship the stolen phones to Colombia to be reprogrammed and sold, cops said.
Others arrested in Monday’s raid included Alexander Dayker, 20, and Roxanna Sahos, 24. Their arraignments in Bronx Criminal Court were pending Tuesday.
Cops believe there are 14 people in the crew and are working to nab the others involved.
The robberies date back to November, when most of the men first arrived in the city. The most recent robbery happened Sunday night in Chinatown, cops said.
“It doesn’t matter if a person is a migrant asylum seeker or if the person is a long-term New Yorker,” Mayor Adams said at the press conference. “You break the law, you will be investigated and it will be handled by our criminal justice system.”
Monday’s bust came amid a rise in tensions since a number of migrant men were caught on video beating NYPD cops near Times Square on Jan. 27.
SEE RELATED: NYPD, with Mayor Adams in tow, busts robbery ring with suspects including migrants
Neither Parra nor his crew are believed to have any connection to the incident, authorities said, though cops are investigating possible connections to a Venezuelan gang based on social media posts, tattoos and statements made.
