Walk down 37th Avenue in Woodside and you'll see the usual Queens hustle—delivery bikes weaving through traffic, the smell of street food, and plenty of auto shops with their shutters half-up. But back in February 2025, things got weird at one specific spot. If you’ve heard rumors about a woodside queens auto repair arrested situation, you aren't just imagining things. It wasn't about a bad transmission or a botched paint job. It was a full-scale NYPD drug raid that ended with handcuffs, a Glock, and a link to a Venezuelan gang that has the whole city on edge.
The shop in question was V&R Auto Repair, located at 54-03 37th Ave. On a Wednesday afternoon, specifically February 5, 2025, detectives from the NYPD Intelligence Bureau and officers from the 108th Precinct rolled up with a search warrant. They didn't find just car parts.
The Raid at V&R Auto Repair
Honestly, the scene sounds like something out of a crime drama. Police walked in and found the owner, 54-year-old Rafael Nieves, working on a car with two younger men. The two men weren't exactly local neighborhood mechanics. They were Jose Tamaronis-Caldera and Richard Garcia, both of whom were living in city-run migrant shelters at the time—one at the Crowne Plaza JFK and the other at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan.
Search warrants usually mean the police are looking for something specific, and they hit the jackpot in the office. Tucked inside a desk, they found a .40-caliber Glock pistol. But that wasn’t all. Spread out on a shelf and stuffed into a backpack behind the desk were:
- Six and a half oxycodone pills.
- Multiple plastic bags of cocaine.
- A quantity of cocaine wrapped in paper.
- An air pistol (which complicates the gun charges later).
It’s a lot for a shop that’s supposed to be doing oil changes and brake pads. The woodside queens auto repair arrested news caught a lot of locals off guard because V&R had been a fixture on that block.
Gang Ties and Reduced Charges
Here is where the story gets kinda messy. Law enforcement sources initially flagged the two younger men, Tamaronis-Caldera and Garcia, as having ties to Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan street gang that's been making headlines across the U.S. That detail sent the local news cycle into a frenzy.
But when they got to court, the case started to look a little different.
The Queens District Attorney’s office ended up reducing the charges. Why? Well, it turns out the Glock found in the desk wasn't loaded. Under New York law, an unloaded firearm is a different beast when it comes to bail eligibility. Nieves was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, but because it wasn't loaded, he wasn't "bail eligible" under current reforms. He was released on supervised release.
The two migrants? Their felony gun charges were dropped to misdemeanors because the other "weapon" found was actually just an air pistol. They weren't even charged with drug possession in the end.
Why the Charges Fell Apart
It’s frustrating for neighbors who see a "drug raid" and then see everyone back on the street the next day. The DA's office basically said they have to charge based on the evidence. If the gun is empty and the drugs are in a backpack that "belonged to someone else," proving who owned what in a busy shop is a legal nightmare.
This Isn't Woodside's First Rodeo with Auto Scams
The woodside queens auto repair arrested headlines aren't just about drugs, though. If you look at the history of Northern Boulevard and the surrounding Woodside streets, the area has a long memory for "shady" shop stories.
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Take the Auto Palace case from a few years back. That was a used car dealership on Northern Blvd where the owners, Danny and Jenny Kohanano, were busted for a massive tax fraud scheme. They allegedly swiped over $700,000 in sales tax. Then there was their finance manager, Julio Estrada, who ran a "sham refinancing" scam that cost 23 car buyers over $115,000.
Then you’ve got "Operation Hellcat." That was a massive 2025 takedown of a Queens-based theft ring that stole 126 cars worth over $4.6 million. They had "social media brokers" advertising stolen cars and black-market dealers moving them.
It feels like every time you turn around, there’s a new headline.
How to Protect Yourself in Queens
Look, most mechanics in Woodside are honest people trying to make a living in a tough city. But when you see the words woodside queens auto repair arrested, it makes you think twice about where you drop your keys.
If you're worried about getting caught up in a shop's legal drama or getting scammed, here’s the real-world advice:
- Check the License: New York State requires auto repair shops to be registered with the DMV. If they don't have that green and white sign with a registration number, walk away.
- Google the Owner, Not Just the Shop: As we saw with V&R, the shop name stays the same, but the owner's history is what matters. A quick search for the owner's name can reveal a lot more than a Yelp review.
- Get it in Writing: NYC law requires a written estimate before any work starts. If a shop refuses or says "we'll figure it out," that's a massive red flag.
- The "Vibe" Check: If you walk into a shop and there are people hanging out in the office who clearly aren't customers or mechanics, or if there's drug paraphernalia in plain sight (as was alleged at V&R), get your car out of there.
Moving Forward
The V&R Auto Repair situation is a reminder that the "sanctuary city" debate and local crime often intersect in the most random places—like a small garage on 37th Avenue. While Rafael Nieves and the others are navigating the court system, the shop itself serves as a warning.
Queens is a place of hustle, but sometimes that hustle crosses the line. Keep your eyes open.
Next Steps for Car Owners in Queens:
Check your recent repair receipts. If you've been to a shop that’s recently been in the news for an arrest, ensure your VIN hasn't been used in any insurance "staged accident" scams. You can run a free VIN check through the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) to see if your car has been flagged for anything suspicious. Also, if you suspect a shop of tax fraud or illegal activity, you can report it anonymously to the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance or the Queens DA's Frauds Bureau.