At least four migrants were busted this week for pickpocketing straphangers – including one Venezuelan woman who’s been arrested at least eight times in the six months since she arrived to the Big Apple, according to law enforcement sources.
Maria Manaura, 32 — who is being housed at the Row NYC hotel in Times Square — was nabbed Tuesday evening for allegedly snatching a 25–year–old woman’s cell phone on a packed downtown No. 6 train at 42nd Street-Grand Central, sources said.
A day later, Michelle Sequera, 23, also of Venezuela, was busted for allegedly ripping a cell phone out of a woman’s hands on the downtown platform at the Grand Central subway station, police and sources said.
“She has my phone!” the 35-year-old victim yelled as she ran up to cops stationed at the transit hub specifically to deter thieves.
Sequera, who said she lives at the Randall’s Island migrant relief center and has been in the US for three months, was charged with grand larceny, cops and sources said.
Arrested alongside her on the same charge was Adonis Chala, 34, for allegedly preventing the victim from chasing the alleged thief, sources said.
Chala came to the US eight months ago from Ecuador and helped bring Sequera after meeting her online, according to the sources. His address is listed as a humanitarian relief center in Brooklyn.
Also on Wednesday Gabriel Maraima, 22, — a migrant from Venezuela who has been staying at the Hotel Mint JFK Airport — was busted for allegedly snatching a woman’s credit card at the same station on Saturday and making an unauthorized charge, cops and sources said.
Police stopped him for entering the station through the emergency exit without paying the fare, according to cops and sources. He was charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property as well as a rap for fare-beating, sources said.
Manaura, meanwhile, was charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, jostling and resisting arrest.
She was arraigned Thursday on the first two charges in addition to petit larceny – and granted supervised release by Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Jay Weiner.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had requested Manaura be held on $10,000 cash bail or $30,000 bond, citing her past arrests, including for “a nearly identical incident” from Dec. 1 in which she allegedly stole a woman’s phone, debit card and wallet out of her coat pocket in Bryant Park.
She was released on her own recognizance in that case.
In total, she’s been arrested eight times on grand larceny charges, sources said.
“Given the defendant’s unabated criminal conduct, monetary bail is reasonably necessary to ensure she follows court orders and returns to court,” an assistant district attorney said in court.
Sources said Manaura and another woman — who has not been arrested — allegedly appeared to be searching for victims on the platform at Grand Central before they boarded the train, surrounded and bumped into the victim before yanking her phone out of her jacket pocket Wednesday.
When the victim got off the train at 14th Street-Union Square, she reported to cops that her phone was gone, the sources said.
Officers on patrol in the station witnessed the theft but lost sight of Manaura in the crowd, sources said.
Cops spread out on separate lines to hunt for Manaura – and managed to find her within about 40 minutes of the theft on an F train at West 4th Street, according to the sources.
She threw the phone on the ground and struggled with cops, but was ultimately arrested, authorities said.
The arrests come after the NYPD nabbed a migrant pickpocketing crew accused of targeting West Village bar patrons last week.
Oscar Tarazona, Sebastian Baez and alleged ringleader Lina Jacome-Bedoya, all migrants from Colombia, were charged with grand larceny and possession of stolen property at Bosco on Bleeker, Wicked Willy’s and the Red Lion between 1:30 and 2 a.m. Saturday, authorities said.
