DANGER: New York Gives Tren de Aragua Gang Members a Slap on the Wrist, Releases Them

Courtesy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Some people never learn.

According to an exclusive report in the New York Post on Wednesday, the city of New York has posted another entry in the Stupid Sweepstakes. This time, it involves two Tren de Aragua gang-bangers, both of whom are in the country illegally, arrested on drug and gun possession charges, along with the owner of the auto shop who was harboring them.

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All three got a sweetheart deal: All charges were reduced to misdemeanors. They're all back on the street.

A pair of reputed migrant gangbangers were nabbed in a drug raid at a Queens auto shop — only to be cut loose without bail after prosecutors reduced the charges, The Post has learned.

Jose Tamaronis-Caldera, 27, and Richard Garcia, 33, both tied to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, were busted on felony drug and gun charges in a Feb. 5 raid at V&R Auto and Collision in Woodside, along with 54-year-old shop owner Rafael Nieves, according to sources and court records.

But once the case got to court, Queens prosecutors reduced the charges, hitting the migrants with a misdemeanor count of possession of an air gun — which let them walk without bail.

Nieves, who faced the most serious charges, had his drug and gun possession charges knocked down as well, with the new counts not eligible for bail under the state’s controversial criminal justice reforms.

Now all three are back on the streets.

This has been a growing problem in the Big Apple since the de Blasio era, leading to a spike in crime. And why not? Criminals face little risk of serious prosecution in New York. Illegal aliens, even gang members, are promised safe haven.

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It gets worse.

“These are not misguided individuals,” a law enforcement source told The Post. “They’re documented members of a known violent criminal enterprise, a gang who has planted their flag here by entrenching themselves in narcotics, gun and human trafficking — and the best we can do is let them out?

“If we did our jobs with criminals, we wouldn’t have ICE scouring our streets for detainees.”

Tamaronis-Caldera and Garcia crossed the US border illegally in 2023, but were released into the country under former President Joe Biden’s lax border policies, federal immigration sources said.

If the city of New York had done its job working with ICE, Tamaronis-Caldera and Garcia would have been back in Venezuela.


See Related: Kristi Noem Gives NYC Hotels the 'Cricket' Treatment Over FEMA's $59 Million Mutiny Payment

WATCH: Ric Grenell Admires His Handiwork As Scores of Illegals Are Repatriated on Venezuela's Dime


It's not just the callous disregard for the rule of law that's so troubling. It's the likelihood, a likelihood that increases every day these goblins are running around loose, that sooner or later, a police officer, an ICE agent, or an innocent bystander will be killed by one of these illegal immigrants. Or another Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray, or Laken Riley could encounter one of these two gang-bangers.

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In a world where the system was operating properly, these Tren de Aragua thugs never would have been released into the United States. If they had somehow slipped in, at their first arrest, they would have been detained, ICE notified, and they would have been on a repatriation flight the next day. If they had been arrested on felony gun and drug charges, they would have been arraigned on felony drug and gun charges and, with their known associations, kept in Rikers Island until their trial.

But we seem not to be living in a world where the system is operating properly — at least, not in New York.

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