Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua recruiting army of child gang members

New York Police Department has warned that violent Venezuelan super gang Tren de Aragua is recruiting child gang members from migrant shelters. 

The notorious organized crime group has reportedly enlisted a squad of children as young as 11 known as the 'Little Devils of 42nd Street' to rob shops and members of the street with guns and knives. 

'We have 39 members of TdA that have been identified and we have an additional four members that have been identified of a subgroup called Little Devils of 42nd Street. Those are much younger kids,' NYPD chief of detectives Joseph Kenny said. 

He added that cops had identified scores of gang members attempting to blend in with asylum seekers in shelter. 

In addition police said more than 800 gang-related crimes have taken place this year in the Big Apple, which has doubled from 2023. 

NYPD's warning comes after Homeland Security officials said last week that the Venezuelan gang had expanded to take foothold across 16 states across the US. 

TdA territory now covers half of America's population, posing challenges for law enforcement agencies across the US who are trying to combat the mob's wave of crime.

The gang has spread its tentacles across Virginia, Washington DC, Montana and Wyoming, according to an internal Homeland Security department intelligence memo obtained by The New York Post.

Officials warn that TdA's arrival in the US capital and nearby Virginia coincides with 'increases in migrant populations' in the area, the memo states.

TdA is reportedly targeting DC because the city provides easy travel access to wealthy northern Virginian suburbs where gangsters are carrying out thefts, robberies and assaults.

The mob's bloodthirsty members have also increased their 'violent tendencies' and has become more engaged with 'lower-level fraud and theft schemes' that allow them to send stolen funds 'back to South America as a means of financing additional criminal enterprises', according to the intelligence document.

Homeland security officials warn that as the 'population of Venezuelan nationals continues to increase, the potential for violent TdA migrants is highly probable'.

In addition to its expanded territory, TdA also holds footholds in New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, Illinois, Georgia, Louisiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and Colorado.

The Venezuelan gang has recently been in the spotlight after nursing student Laken Riley was brutally murdered by TdA gang member Jose Antonio Ibarra earlier this year. 

Riley fought for an excruciating 18 minutes before Ibarra snuffed her life out. 

Her body was found less than an hour after she was reported missing, near a lake on the University of Georgia campus. Authorities determined she died of blunt force trauma to the head and asphyxiation.

Ibarra , an undocumented migrant, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole last week. 

Riley's horrific killing shocked the nation and fueled the immigration debate during the US presidential election.

Donald Trump, whose successful campaign for the White House rested largely on an anti-immigration platform, railed against illegal migrants, blaming them for 'poisoning the blood' of the country and likening them to 'animals' and 'monsters'.