Happy St. Patrick’s Day

I took a genealogy test last year and I am 43.3% British & Irish. So does that count?

I am 52% Northwestern European and 34.8% Indigenous American. Specifically the Purepecha people.

Apparently my genetics preferred the European side over the Mexican side. So, where are my blue eyes, dammit? I know, brown is more dominant, but I personally feel I was robbed.

So, I want to jot down some things I’ve had on my mind lately.

First, Tren de Aragua, the Venezuela gang residing in America. Per research, there are over 5,000 members and aside from America, they also operate in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and then obviously Venezuela. Their criminal activities include murder, protection racketeering, drug trafficking, human trafficking, forced prostitution, human smuggling, kidnapping-for-ransom, retail theft, robbery, illegal mining, bribery, and money laundering. Holy shit.

I had to look up protection racketeering because I honestly didn’t know what that was. If you didn’t know it’s when a gang demands money or other benefits from people, business, or communities in exchange for protection against threats.

I was also curious what they illegally mine. Mainly gold and mainly in Bolivar which is a gold-rich region. Their operations in mining gold involve extortion, forced labor, and violent enforcement to maintain dominance. Mining gold provides them much of their revenue which fuels their expansion, and financing other criminal activities such as drug and human trafficking. Mining illegally allows them to exploit natural resources unregulated at the cost of the local communities and their environment.

As far human trafficking goes,  Tren de Aragua have increased their operations across Latin America and the US. Just last month eight Venezuelan people who were tied to the gang were indicted in Tennessee for their roles in a transnational commercial sex enterprise. They forced women from South America into prostitution across many US states.

Yuribetzi Del Valle Gomez Machuca (mouthful) was arrested in San Antonio for her involvement in a sex trafficking ring that exploited women from various Latin American countries.

There were multiple arrests made by the Peruvian authorities and ICE dismantling Tren de Aragua’s activities in Lima.

This all happened February 2025.

In the US, Tren de Aragua gangs reside in mainly 5 major cities. These include Chicago, Illinois. They first appeared in the suburbs in October 2023.

New York City, New York where they have been associated with a series of crimes including shootings, thefts, street robberies, forced prostitution, extortion, and drugs. It’s been reported they live in migrant shelters and recruit new members from these shelters.

In El Paso, Texas, 41 members of Tren De Aragua were arrested in 2023.

Aurora, Colorado has been controversial about if the Venezuelan gang members where actually living there. In August 2024 there was surveillance footage of armed individuals attempting to enter apartments. However later the Aurora Police Department indicated these were what appeared to be isolated instances. (???)

In November 2024, The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation warned there were gang operations across the state.

From the sounds of all this, I don’t really want this gang to be living and operating in the US.