Migrant Youth Gang Los Diablos de la 42 Terrorizes Times Square, Repeat Arrests Mean Little
One 15-year-old “asylum seeker” was busted 11 times for assault and robbery before a judge finally kept him behind bars. How long the recidivist will remain there in light of lax juvenile crime laws is an open question.
| 21 Oct 2024 | 10:12
A typical Times Square tourist, October 2024. Their face has been blurred to preserve their anonymity. (
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H-Yard Deli, 450 9th Ave corner of 35th, where a 15-year-old Little Devil made his most recent robbery. Photo date September 2024. (
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Looking west on 44th Street towards Broadway and 7th Avenue, October 2024. (
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The devil is in the details.
Though this phrase can apply to many aspects of New York City’s response to the ongoing migrant crisis, it’s an especially apt reaction to the news that one teenage gangster—who must be counted among the most incorrigible of our “newest neighbors” —is at last facing some consequences for his actions.
The gang in question is “Los Diablos de la 42”—the Devils of 42nd Street—which authorities assert is a farm team of young criminals recruited by the notorious Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua.
This 42nd Street isn’t that of the famous 1933 movie music and song; the hit 1980 Broadway musical; or the acclaimed 2017-2019 HBO series, “The Deuce”—though like that show set in the 1970s-80s Times Square, it’s one rampant with criminality.
That it only took at least eleven arrests– yes, eleven– arrests for a judge to keep one Little Devil behind bars is testament to a justice system ripe for a savvy—or at least persistent—perps to exploit. That the name of this career-criminal-in-training cannot be released because, at 15-years-old he’s considered juvenile, his story has proved both exceptional and typical enough to be publicized, which the New York Post did in an October 15 article.
He crossed into the United States at Eagle Pass, Texas in May of 2023. Along with his family, they were briefly detained, and then released—with their first (repeat first) immigration hearing scheduled for next month, November 2024. Any resolution to their asylum request is unlikely to occur this decade.
What this wayward son did during his first year in America is unclear but it’s believed that by May 2024, he was part of the Los Diablos, based out of the Roosevelt Hotel, 45 East 45th Street, between Madison and Vanderbilt.
Opened in 1924, the architecturally splendid 800-room hotel is owned by Pakistani International Airlines. Closed in October 2020 from COVID, reopened in May 2023 as an “asylum-seeker arrival center.”
Since then, it’s estimated the city has spent more than $2 billion in migrant housing costs alone, including rent to the Roosevelt Hotel and around 150 other hotels serving as “temporary shelters.”
It’s unclear what, if any schools the Diablos—some as young as 11— attend or have attended though all are eligible for a free city education. Judging by their social media posts, however, it doesn’t appear that truancy is a great concern.
On May 28, he was among three young hoodlums who, using fists and brass knuckles, mugged two subway riders on the 7 train in Queens. He was charged with first degree robbery.
On June 2, he was busted for a knifepoint robbery on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. He was charged with first degree robbery.
On July 20, cops said he was part of a Central Park-area robbery crew that stole a victim’s phone o.n E 60th Street. Days later, he was arrested for snatching a chain off a passenger on the No. 4 train at Lexington and 59th Street.
On August 9, stole a phone heand wallet from an F train passenger in Midtown.
On August 14, he and another perp staged a knifepoint phone robbery near Times Square.
On August 27, he was busted for chain snatching near Penn Plaza, just steps from Straus News’ Manhattan office
On September 2, he was accused of chain snatching at 12th Avenue and West 43rd Street.
On October 15, the New York Post, with the participation of unnamed federal and local law enforcement official, brought the case to public light he likely wouldn’t have received elsewhere. Some other media outlets, both English and Spanish, picked up the story too.
Before erstwhile migrant and criminal reform advocates had time to refute this portrait of Los Diablos running wild, emboldened by a legal system ill-empowered to corral them, Little Devil was arrested again.
The crime this time was the knife point robbery outside the H-Yard Deli at 9th Avenue and 35th Street.
In the colorless words of NYPD Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information (DCPI), from where the city’s official crime reports are issued:
“There is a report on file for robbery, within the confines of the Midtown South Precinct. It was reported to police that on Monday, September 30, 2024, at approximately 1905 [7:05 p.m.] hours, a 34-year-old male was walking in front of 450 9 Avenue when an unknown individual pushed him, displayed a knife and demanded his phone. The suspect fled on foot toward 9 Avenue on 34 Street without removing the phone from the complainant. The victim refused medical attention on scene.”
With the aid of video surveillance, the Little Devil was later caught at Columbus Avenue and 59th Street.
DCPI continues:
On Tuesday, October 15, 2024 at approximately 1930 hours, the following individual was arrested and charged:
15-year-old male
Charges:
Robbery 1st Degree
Robbery- 2nd Degree
Appearing in Manhattan Family Court on October 16, the Little Devil, who’d been released without bail on every prior occasion, did not speak but rather sobbed when informed that this time he wouldn’t immediately be set free.
Said, Judge Betsey Jean-Jacques, “The court finds that remand is appropriate and at this time there are no alternatives, and that a return to home at this time would be inappropriate.”
How long the Little Devil will have to ponder his life choices in the country where he’s seeking asylum from remains unclear.