by Larry Celona, Joe Marino and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon at New York Post
The 19-year-old migrant charged with shooting two NYPD cops allegedly told police he was recruited by a violent Venezuelan gang’s Big Apple “coordinator” to join a crew of “snatch and grab” moped thieves, law-enforcement sources said Wednesday.
Bernardo Raul Castro Mata — who illegally entered the US last July in Texas — allegedly said he was encouraged to get distinctive tattoos to show his allegiance to the notorious Tren de Aragua gang, the sources said.
The “coordinator” for the brutal street gang provides its members in New York City with mopeds, used in lucrative cellphone robberies, he told police, according to the sources.
Mata, of Venezuela, arrived at the Queens shelter, a facility catering to families, with three other people but hadn’t been living there since May 15, sources have said.
In the following weeks, he’s suspected of taking part in a series of grab-and-run moped robberies across the five boroughs, according to the sources…