Cops on Randall’s Island raided an illegal market Tuesday allegedly run by migrants just steps away from the city-run Humanitarian Emergency Response Relief Center (HERRC), sources said.
According to nearby residents, the waterfront adjacent to the Soccer Field 83 has recently become a space in which asylum-seekers who have very little to their name trade goods via an unregulated and illegal marketplace.
“They were making food and selling it, they were selling clothing and things like that,” said Mike, a Manhattan resident who comes to the area to run and came upon the raid Tuesday. “It’s not the Randall’s Island that I knew.”
The bazaar, however, was torn down and scraped by cops and Parks Enforcement officers on Oct. 17 after several crimes were reported in the area.
According to police sources, the situation began on Sunday when a migrant reported that his motorcycle had been stolen.
When officers from the 25th Precinct arrived and attempted to make an arrest, they were surrounded by 15 to 20 migrants who became physical with the officers, giving the suspect a chance to make his getaway.
On Tuesday, a large police presence and city Parks Department officers returned to the island to clean up the market, while also looking for the suspect whom they say fled days earlier. The NYPD had called a Level 3 mobilization for the operation, bringing legions of officers to Randall’s Island, which is an otherwise tranquil public park below the RFK (Triborough) Bridge.
Police report that one migrant was arrested in connection to a stolen moped, but it is unclear if this was the same individual who fled on Sunday.
In addition to the arrest, police also confiscated Tuesday an array of illegal mopeds. Sources with knowledge of the investigation reported that tents, shopping carts, furniture, and other items were among those tossed onto the trash pile.
