Published June 27, 2024, 6:02 p.m. ET
By Aneeta Bhole, Haley Brown and Matt Troutman
An accused cop shooter who claimed a Venezuelan gang is smuggling guns into migrant facilities stayed at a shelter with a X-ray and magnetometer to scan for weapons, officials said.
Security guards at the East Elmhurst shelter have been “retrained” on the proper use of handheld wands and scanning belongings since former resident Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, 19, allegedly shot two NYPD officers, city officials told The Post.
But Mata’s stunning, but still-unverified claim that the bloodthirsty, Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang is using food delivery bags to sneak guns to members has prompted lawmakers of all stripes to call for heightened security at city-run migrant shelters.
Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) said the “powers that be are being duped relying on the honor system.”
“Violent criminals are taking advantage of the overly lenient system, and have absolutely no respect for our police, much less the citizen security guards hired to oversee their facilities,” she told The Post.
The city’s migrant shelters have been plagued with security problems, from vicious stabbings and brawls to attacks on cops to security guards raking in up to $117 an hour.
Many locals and pols contend lawlessness is spilling from shelters into local neighborhoods – an assertion backed by the NYPD’s crackdown on a surge of two-heeled heists by migrant moped gangs.
“Only people who live in an alternate universe cannot see the correlation between mass migrant tent cities and shelters and rising crime in neighborhoods,” said Joseph Borelli (R-Staten Island), the council’s minority leader.
Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) said Mata – a self-professed Tren de Aragua member who told cops the gang commonly shoots cops in Venezuela – is the “poster child” against open borders and sanctuary city status.
“This is why everyone coming into our country should be heavily vetted and should not be in our shelter systems which I believe will now have to start using metal detectors,” he said.
Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-Queens) said more security in shelters is a given, but more power to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is imperative. Mayor Eric Adams also backed this idea earlier in the year.
“You have people in the City Council yelling about crime but when we want to give our police force more power they start to scream in the opposite direction,” Paladino said.
But other more progressive council members argued the problem isn’t that far from the Big Apple.
Diana Ayala (D-Manhattan/Bronx) told The Post that migrant shelters have “low level security” which is the problem, rather than border policy.
“This could easily be happening at a city-run shelter, right, where the New Yorker could be smuggling drugs or a gun in – which is why we have certain policies within our shelter structures to prevent things like this from happening,” she said.
“The problem with the migrant facilities is they don’t have that.”
She said lawmakers have been calling for metal detectors in those facilities for some time to no avail – noting that some people are “climbing” into these shelters.
“Some migrants are jumping the fence and then getting in through the backdoor,” she claimed.
Chris Banks (D-Brooklyn) said turning our attention to border policy and sanctuary status is distracting us from the actual issue.
“It seems that there has been a great deal of concern that these things are happening but my question is what is the city putting in place to deal with it?” Banks said.
Mata’s claims about guns being smuggled into migrant shelters have not been verified, city officials said.
He was kicked out of the former Marriott Courtyard along Ditmars Boulevard near LaGuardia Airport after a domestic incident, not a weapons violation, officials said.
Security guards at migrant shelters across the city have been ongoing additional training, according to officials.
“All of our shelter sites have 24/7 security, and we have been clear that anyone who violates the code of conduct or threatens the safety of other shelter residents and staff will be immediately discharged,” a City Hall spokesperson said.