Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark and NYC Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch announced Thursday, April 30, that they had “put the breaks” on 11 of 16 people with alleged links to the Trinitarios gang who have been charged with various crimes in a 971-count indictment relating to a widespread theft operation of cars and valuable auto parts throughout The Bronx and the rest of New York City.

 

They said five of the 16 remain unapprehended but have also been charged, and added that the operation resulted in the victimization of 252 vehicle owners. They said 12 of the 16 charged are residents of The Bronx, one is from Yonkers, one from Queens, one from Manhattan, and one from New Jersey. They said the defendants invariably face from between 8 and 15 years for non-violent B felony crimes.

The defendants are Wilbin Santana, 23, The Bronx, currently being electronically monitored, Juan Hernandez, 30, The Bronx, awaiting arraignment, Jose Diaz Medina, 26, The Bronx, on supervised release, Elvin Andujar, 26, The Bronx, released on bail set at $7,500 cash, 15k bond 15k at 10%, Yefry Tapia, 27, The Bronx, on supervised release, Angel Guerra, 27, The Bronx, on supervised release, Joalfred Luciano, 30, The Bronx, on supervised release, Carlos Matos, 30, The Bronx, unapprehended, Carlos Aquino Batista, 30, The Bronx, awaiting arraignment, Yandel Reyes, 18, The Bronx, on supervised release, Lizandro Espinal Lopez, 30, The Bronx, unapprehended, Tiaraliz Cruz Huertas, 21, The Bronx, unapprehended, Edward Orozco, 22, Yonkers, unapprehended, Junior Buenos Rivas, 24, Manhattan, awaiting arraignment, Wascar Gonzalez, 36, Queens, unapprehended, and Miguel Quesada, 32, Newark, NJ, awaiting extradition.

 

“These defendants allegedly worked as fast as a racetrack pit crew in the dead of night, stealing cars, tires and rims, and catalytic converters worth more than $1 million on the black market,” said Clark. “All across the Bronx, people heading to work or school in the morning found their cars propped on crates, or an empty parking space, leaving them stranded and financially strained. Auto crime is devastating to our community, and I commend the NYPD Auto Crimes Unit and my prosecutors for putting the brakes on this crew.”

Clark said nine of the 16 defendants were arrested and arraigned on April 28, and April 29, before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Lawrence Busching on varying degrees of criminal possession of stolen property, grand larceny, auto stripping, criminal mischief and unauthorized use of a vehicle, as well as petit larceny and fourth-degree conspiracy. They are due back in court in September.

 

For her part, Tisch said, “These 16 defendants, alleged affiliates of the notorious Trinitarios street gang, ran an auto theft ring that stole more than $1 million in auto parts, victimizing 252 hardworking New Yorkers. “This takedown is a prime example of our precision policing strategy in action: following the data and leading skilled investigations. Thanks to this approach, auto theft in the Bronx is down more than 22% so far this year, which is helping drive a 10.5% year-to-date drop in major crime across the borough. I am grateful to our NYPD Auto Crime Unit investigators, who worked in coordination with our Warrants Section and the Bronx District Attorney’s Office to hold these criminals accountable and make a real difference in people’s lives.”

According to the investigation, NYPD investigators established the identities of 14 people involved in 172 tires and rims thefts and 69 catalytic converter thefts from vehicles in almost every precinct in The Bronx, and in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens from August 2024 through June of 2025. NYPD Chief of Investigations John Kenny said most of the parts were being sold online within the United States despite the Trinitarios gang links with the Dominican Republic.

 

Because they were sold online, officials said they were hard to track as they had no identifying features [VIN or serial numbers] to them. Jokingly, he said, “They were very hardworking people. They be out there all night, doing their trade.” Clark added that car manufacturers may need to start making such parts identifiable in the future. Tisch added that large case takedowns like this one may hopefully also have a positive effect on wider crime in The Bronx and elsewhere.

 

Asked if those arrested were in the country illegally, Kenny said he would not speak to their immigration status but said they did have prior criminal histories in New York City.

He said these were long-term, complex cases but the borough should see a decrease in auto theft in the future. In terms of prevention, Kenny said while residents can park their cars in well-lit spots, he also recommended getting lug nuts, specialized keyed fasteners designed to prevent wheel theft by requiring a unique adapter (key) for removal, rather than standard socket wrenches, and which delay prospective thieves due to the time they take to remove.

 

Prosecutors said many of the crimes were captured on surveillance video showing a three-person crew exiting a stolen car, fully masked, with gloves, a car jack, and milk crates. They said the thieves would lift the target car and use power tools to take all four tires and rims off within a couple of minutes.

Press Conference 4/30/26 re Bronx Car theft operation after 16 were indicted for 252 thefts. V2 Video by Síle Moloney

They added that they used public parking garages throughout The Bronx to store the stolen vehicles before and after the thefts, which they said occurred between midnight and 5 a.m. Prosecutors went on to say that the other two defendants were buyers of stolen catalytic converters which they sold on the black market. They said that when police executed a search warrant at the home of one of the two defendants, they found a suitcase with $116,000 in cash.

 

They said the total in stolen property was $1.2 million, and 11 cars stolen from around the metropolitan area that were used by the defendants to haul away the tires and rims were recovered and returned to the owners or insurance companies over the course of the investigation.

In April 2025, as reported, seven Bronx men were charged with a $6.6 million luxury car theft operation in New Jersey where the vehicles were being stored in The Bronx and then shipped to West Africa. As reported at that time, Clark appeared to have been publicly criticized by the police commissioner. “Auto theft is a felony, so it needs to be charged as a felony,” the NY Post reported Tisch as saying at the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City breakfast forum in Midtown Tuesday, April 15, 2025, “And when you don’t charge appropriately…you end up leading the city in stolen cars by a wide margin.”

 

Norwood News reached out to the district attorney’s office at that time for a comment on the commissioner’s remarks and received the following statement: “We have a productive partnership with NYPD Auto Crime to address auto crime and vehicle theft, which has resulted in several long-term investigations of car theft crews and organized theft rings. This approach allows us to interrupt the patterns of these crimes and prosecute vigorously.”

It continued, “There is a difference between what the police charge at arrest and what we can prove in court. Charging decisions are made with the utmost integrity and we do not charge unless we have the evidence. Given that The Bronx is a hub for the sale of cars stolen from other jurisdictions, we will continue our stepped-up efforts to address auto crimes and hold people accountable for them.”

 

At the latest press conference, Tisch was effusive in her praise of Clark, saying auto theft in The Bronx is now down 22% so far this year, “the largest year over year reduction of any borough in the city.” She added, “It is driving The Bronx’s 10.5% year-to-date decline in major crime. This is a sharp reversal from 2025, when The Bronx was the only borough that saw an increase in auto theft compared to the prior year.”

 

She added that the share of the City’s auto theft crime in the Bronx had also gone down from 35% last year to 29% today. “This is what happens when you face an issue head on and when you combine data in a driven strategy with the execution by the best investigators in the world,” she said. “This case exemplifies the great work of our detectives but more significantly, it speaks to directly to why we do that work.”

Press Conference 4/30/26 re Bronx Car theft operation after 16 were indicted for 252 thefts. V3 Video by Síle Moloney

“To the dedicated investigators in the NYPD’s auto crime unit who worked these cases, to our warrant squad cops who made the apprehensions, to Darcel Clark and all of our partners in the great Bronx DA’s office, thank you,” the commissioner said. “Your work makes a real difference and you should never forget how much you to mean to this City and to everyone that you serve.”

 

Tisch said [in contrast to the luxury car theft operation referenced above], the vehicles in question, which were mostly Honda, Toyota sedans and SUVs, “driven by hardworking New Yorkers,” were targeted because they were the most common and would be the easiest to sell in a larger marketplace.

 

In November 2025, reported, federal prosecutors announced that seven Bronx men were charged in federal court for a stolen car sale racket involving unsuspecting buyers. Norwood News readers had weighed in with their thoughts on the matter earlier that year in May, via our Inquiring Photographer feature.

Norwood News later asked Clark if the latest indictments were in any way related to the prior car theft take downs reported on in The Bronx and we were advised that it was not and is a separate case. In June 2025, in Norwood and Spuyten Duyvil, as reported, drivers were being targeted for car robberies.

 

In December 2023, as reported, three people had been sought for armed auto theft in Wakefield. In July 2023, in the Eastchester section, a 60-year-old woman had been dragged from her car and assaulted during a car robbery.

In December 2022, as reported, in Highbridge, a 39-year-old man was hospitalized after a car robbery and police-involved shooting. In November 2022, as reported, in Wakefield, a thief stole an unattended car with a 2-year-old girl in the back seat.

 

Norwood News asked if the car theft operation had been concentrated in any one specific neighborhood in The Bronx or all over and the commissioner and DA said it was a widespread operation all over the borough.

 

In 2020, the 52nd Precinct saw a 128.6% rise in car thefts as reported at the time. In July 2021, we reported in the context of a car break-in on the Reservoir Oval in Norwood that grand larceny auto incidents had increased by 44%.

Press Conference 4/30/26 re Bronx Car theft operation after 16 were indicted for 252 thefts. V4 Video by Síle Moloney

As reported, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Tisch announced March 11, 2024 the takedown of a separate car theft operation where they said those involved sold stolen vehicles throughout New York and New Jersey. That investigation recovered more than 40 stolen motor vehicles, with a total value of more than $1 million. OAG officials said from five people were charged with 92 crimes for their roles in selling stolen cars across New York and New Jersey.

 

In December 2023, James and the NYPD’s auto crime division charged two brothers with crimes related to theft and possession of vehicles in The Bronx, and in August 2023, James announced the convictions of six Bronx-based members of a crew responsible for over 200 burglaries of businesses in the Lower Hudson Valley, New York City, and on Long Island, including car dealerships.

 

As reported, at an April 11, 2023 NYPD press conference, the NYPD presented new “Star Chase” global positioning [tracking] technology which comprises different types of electronic devices. According to the company’s website, the Star Chase vehicle mounted GPS launcher, for example, deploys a GPS tracking tag onto a suspect’s vehicle. Once the GPS tag sticks to the vehicle, it communicates positional data to the CoreView mapping platform in real time. “Law enforcement can then plan and coordinate an informed tactical response to make a safe arrest while maintaining community and officer safety,” an extract from the company’s website reads.

Bronx DA-issued example video of Bronx Car theft operation after 16 were indicted for 252 thefts. V1 Video by Síle Moloney

On Sunday, April 30, 2023, at another NYPD-related press conference held inside Castle Hill Library, then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams and then-NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell unveiled yet another type of Star Chase device for civilian use which can assist with auto theft prevention. It consists of an electronic tracking card which, once activated, can track the location of a stolen vehicle.

 

Free Apple Airtags to help track stolen cars are distributed from time to time by the NYPD at different events, as in the attached example below. Norwood News has asked the NYPD if they can be picked up at a stationhouse and will share any feedback we receive.

 

The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.

 

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Lawrence Rozenblum, Sam Arno, Kali King and Stephanos Tsarnas of the Trial Division, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Jessica Lupo, deputy chief in the trial division, James Brennan, deputy chief of the trial division and Theresa Gottlieb, chief of the trial Division.

 

She also thanked NYPD Auto Crime Unit Lieutenant William Dooley and Police Officers Benjamin Warren, Gabriel Espadas, Joseph Parisi for their work on the investigation, along with Police Officer Juan Gomez, Detective April Maxwell, Sergeant Brandon Gembecki, and Inspector Daniel Campbell of the Auto Crimes Unit, Deputy Chief John Potkay and Assistant Chief Benjamin Gurley of Patrol Borough Bronx.

 

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