Crews of motorized bike-riding thieves \u2014 some of them illegal migrant gang-bangers \u2014 are terrorizing New York City, viciously snatching thousands of dollars in jewlery from the the necks of unsuspecting cops and civilians alike, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n
There have been more than 20 motorized bike chain-snatchings since September, with at least 10 of them turning violent, according to the NYPD \u2014 and police sources say that\u2019s just a drop in the bucket.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are hundreds of chain snatchings around the city<\/a>,\u201d said a law enforcement officer, who asked to remain anonymous because he\u2019s not cleared to talk to the news media.\u00a0<\/p>\n A masked scooter rider approaches a 48-year-old male victim on West 145th Street in the Bronx before snatching the victim\u2019s necklace and fleeing on Sept. 25. DCPI<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of it has to do with the Trinitarios,\u201d said the officer, referring to the violent street gang<\/a> founded by Dominican inmates at Rikers Island in the early 1990s that has since grown into a crime empire plaguing the Bronx and upper Manhattan for decades.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one of their big things, chain snatchings, and two people on a bike doing robberies.\u201d<\/p>\n The most notable mobile mugging happened when an NYPD detective was stabbed 10 times<\/a> after he tried to fight back against two illegal migrants earlier this month.<\/p>\n Nine other chain-snatching victims reported being punched, knifed or thrown to the ground during the terrifying, lightning-fast robberies.<\/p>\n Two reputed Trinitario gang members on scooters were also responsible for shooting an off-duty federal border patrol agent at a Manhattan park on July 9, 2025, sparking a massive roundup of Big Apple gangbangers in January, federal officials said.<\/p>\n The robbers ride scooters up to men and women in the street and rip off their necklaces. DCPI<\/p>\n \u201cOperation Salvo\u201d took 54 members of the crew off the streets<\/a> after the 42-year-old law enforcement officer<\/a> was shot and wounded at Fort Washington Park in Washington Heights at West 155th Street, the officials said.<\/p>\n In Gotham, the thieves often have the advantage.<\/p>\n If they are caught, lefty judges often spring the crooks just as fast.<\/p>\n And they are never handed over to ICE if their immigration status is in question because NYC is a sanctuary city, an NYPD officer said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not allowed to confer with ICE so we just arrest them,\u201d said the cop, who also asked to remain anonymous so he wouldn\u2019t get in trouble. \u201cThey get released on their own recognizance [by a judge] and they go back and do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes the robbers are armed with knives or guns and other times they punch their victims. DCPI<\/p>\n The revolving-door system was spinning in the case of Jorge Beltre, a Bronx bodega worker and Uber driver who was attacked by two\u00a0scooter-riding bandits as he walked his 5-year-old son home from school near Mount Eden Parkway and Sheridan Avenue in Claremont on Oct. 8.<\/p>\n Beltre, 30, fought back to save his 14-karat gold Cuban-link chain when one of the attackers pulled a knife and stabbed him in the leg, according to police.<\/p>\n Despite his wound, the Domincan Republic native was able to hold the 17-year-old thief \u2014 with the help of eight onlookers \u2014 until cops arrived, he said. Beltre\u2019s son was unharmed.<\/p>\n When the robberies are arrested they are usually released without bail and have the ability to commit the crime again, a police source said.. DCPI<\/p>\n The teenager was charged with robbery and weapon possession, according to police. He was released on $900 bail, Beltre said the Bronx District Attorneys Office told him. <\/p>\n \u201cThe community and I caught one,\u201d he told The Post in Spanish. \u201cWhy did they let him go? He didn\u2019t say where the other guy is. He didn\u2019t say who the other guy was. I feel outraged. Why do they grant him release?<\/p>\n \u201cIt fills me with outrage because I felt my life was in danger,\u201d Beltre continued. \u201cWe are living through a scourge. The Bronx is practically being ravaged by these criminals. People are getting their chains snatched \u2014 two or three incidents a day. The community is fed up.\u201d<\/p>\n The individuals depicted are wanted in connection with a citywide robbery pattern that occurred within the confines of the 94th and 71st precincts in Brooklyn and the 112th and 108th precinct in Queens, cops said.. DCPI<\/p>\n The experience has been \u201cunsettling\u201d for his son, who asked his mom to send him back to school with a baseball bat \u201cso he could hit the criminals if he saw them,\u201d Beltre said. He said his muggers were also from the Domican Republic.<\/p>\n Beltre needed five stitches to close his wound. <\/p>\n The Bronx District Attorneys Office didn\u2019t respond to a message seeking comment.<\/p>\n In another incident on Sept. 13, a 54-year-old victim told cops he tried to hold onto the motorbike-riding thief who ripped a chain off his neck on Grand Avenue near West 180th Street in the West Bronx.<\/p>\n Jorge Beltre was robbed by a moped robbery crew as he walked his 5-year-old son home from school. Jorge Beltr\u00e9<\/p>\n But the thief accelerated, dragging the victim, who suffered minor injuries and lost his $2,700 chain, cops said.<\/p>\n Two robbers on e-bikes approached a 60-year-old man near Duncan Street and Laconia Avenue in the East Bronx on Sept. 28, displayed a firearm and punched him in the face before snatching $8,000 of jewelry from his neck. He suffered minor injuries.<\/p>\n The motorized muggers are brazen enough to target cops. <\/p>\n An off-duty female office, had her chain snatched at the corner of Arlington and Barbey streets in Brownsville, Brooklyn, on Oct. 10, police sources said.<\/p>\n The crook grabbed a gold necklace that read \u201cAngie\u201d from the 25-year-old\u2019s neck before riding off on a scooter, the sources said. The necklace was worth about $800, the cop reported.<\/p>\n The female officer\u2019s attack came eight days after two criminals stabbed Detective Jose Mercedes, 33, near East 206th Street and Rochambeau Avenue in Norwood in the Bronx as they tried to rip the necklace given to him by his mom off his neck, he told reporters this week.<\/p>\n Mercedes told the crooks several times in both English and Spanish that he was a detective \u2014 but \u201cthey didn\u2019t care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The accused robbers, whom police identified as D\u2019Angelo Caraballo, 25, and Sneider Mejia, 24, fled the scene on an e-bike. Mercedes chased them but collapsed because he was losing so much blood, he said.<\/p>\n NYPD Detective Jose Mercedes was attacked and stabbed 10 times by chain snatchers on Oct. 2 near East 206th Street and Rochambeau Avenue in the Bronx. Paul Martinka for NY Post<\/p>\n Police hunted the duo down outside of Boston and brought them back to New York to face attempted murder charges.<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security and ICE said both men have prior criminal records, and are Dominican Republic natives living in the US illegally.<\/p>\n An NYPD spokesperson said the chain-snatchings had been decreasing in the Bronx recently.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the attempted murder of Detective Mercedes, there has been a significant decrease in chain snatches within the confines of Patrol Borough Bronx North,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The spokesperson added that major crime declined 7% in all five boroughs of the city so far this year, with the Bronx continuing to lead the city with a 12% reduction \u2014 to 20,751 so far this year, versus 23,545 in the same period last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Surveillance photos released by the NYPD show the robbers often have their faces completely covered and are difficult to identify, police sources said.<\/p>\n