A brash Venezuelan immigrant with nearly 300,000 social media followers has rallied to rally in support of a 15-year-old boy from his home country who allegedly blew up a tourist’s leg in Times Square and then opened fire on police. ” I am calling on my colleagues to do the same.
Leonel Moreno, who goes by @leitooficial_25 on TikTok and Instagram and appears to live in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, with his partner and 3-month-old daughter, also boasts about making money by begging on the streets. is posted. He collects government benefits.
“Please look for it.” [his] As his mother and all of us pitch in to pay the bail, this young Venezuelan feels like he’s not alone in his difficult situation, and remembers that there’s a God watching. . It could be him today, it could be you tomorrow…he did something wrong, it’s okay,” Moreno says. February 12th TikTok It has been viewed 2 million times.
“You never know when God will put you in a situation like this young man,” he laments in the video, apparently referring to Jesús Alejandro Rivas-Figueroa, who was charged as an adult with attempted murder. is. After opening fire at the Crossroads of the World on February 8th.
“We will work together to give this child freedom and opportunity,” Moreno captioned the 1.5-minute video in Spanish.
Moreno’s brazen appeal ignores a Manhattan judge’s order for Rivas-Figueroa to be held without bail.
In another video, the so-called influencer, who has been in the US since September, claims to have made $275 in “three hours.” [of] Ask for money at a traffic light. ”
“The payoff is to ask for money, kid,” he says in the book. Video of November 8th Posted on Instagram.
“[In the USA] everything is given [if] You know how to look,” Moreno says in one article. Instagram clip from January 7thIn it, he brandishes a card that says “MIC Ohio” and says it will buy him “nine pots of milk” at the grocery store.
Daniel Di Martino, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and originally from Venezuela, says Moreno and his message are everything wrong with America’s broken immigration system.
“The American people should be outraged to see how someone could come and abuse American laws and benefits. Sadly, he is likely to take welfare benefits from taxpayers and be denied them.” “He is just one of many who are defrauding taxpayers because of poorly written laws that allow asylum claims to take years to be decided,” Di Martino said.
In response to Mr. Moreno’s video, City Councilman Joseph Borrelli (R-Staten Island) deadpanned: “It’s exactly this kind of attitude that really helps immigrants win over New Yorkers to their cause.”
Added City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens): Influencers should start warning their followers not to come to the US to commit crimes. ”
Moreno did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Immigrants from Moreno’s hometown have been arriving in the United States since mid-2022.
In the Big Apple, a bloodthirsty Venezuelan street gang called Torren de Aragua recruits new immigrants in shelters to set up a cell phone robbery ring and smuggle the phones to Colombia. By reselling, he is already expanding his criminal empire.
In January, Venezuela stopped allowing flights into the country carrying migrants deported from the United States and Mexico.
