Nearly 100 illegal scooters have been seized from the streets and sidewalks of Queens in the latest crackdown on dangerous mopeds, authorities said Thursday.
Prosecutors said 99 unregistered and uninsured scooters were seized during an intensive four-day investigation by detectives from the Queens District Attorney’s Office and officers from the NYPD.
All of the illegal mopeds and five additional legitimate scooters were found illegally parked in locations including Corona, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights during the crackdown, which began June 4 and ran through Tuesday, authorities said.
“The increasing use of illegal scooters to commit violent crimes is a major concern in our city,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement.
The crackdown is part of a citywide effort against immigrant moped gangs, which have been linked to a 400 percent increase since 2022 in scooters being used as a getaway for serious crimes.
A front-page story in the Washington Post said that 80 percent of moped robberies are perpetrated by recently arrived immigrants.
One of those migrants, Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, 19, who is accused of shooting and killing two police officers while riding a scooter on June 3, told police he had been recruited by a “purse-snatching” gang.
The Queens District Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on whether scooters were included in a recent crackdown on mopeds at the East Elmhurst shelter where Mata was staying.
Detectives and officers have seized more than 500 scooters since February, prosecutors said.
