Migrant, 19, Charged in Cop-Shooting Allegedly Told Police He Was Recruited for Venezuelan Gang’s NYC Robbery Crew

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.

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In the following weeks, he’s suspected of taking part in a series of grab-and-run moped robberies across the five boroughs {snip}

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Mata is also being eyed by authorities in Nassau County for a May 22 robbery in Hempstead that left the victim with a gunshot wound to her arm when she tried to fight off her attackers, sources said Wednesday. He allegedly admitted to the crime in an interview with police, the sources added.

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The cops tried to stop Mata after spotting him riding a scooter the wrong way along Ditmars Boulevard without a helmet or license plate on a pedestrian-filled sidewalk, prosecutors said.

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