Investigation: TdA gang is working for Venezuelan government (04-02-2025--Hour2)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:29] All right, so we've got some other stuff going on with the immigration. What did I just do with my sheet of paper? Where did it go? Real professional Pete. Here it is. No? It is the Trend Day Aragua. I don't know what happened to it. Like I literally just had it here and now it is all... Oh, here it is. I put it in with my ticket giveaway. My bad. Okay.

[00:00:56] So we have the Trend Day Aragua question. Is it a military incursion or not? This is not MS-13. Totally different gang. Okay. But they too have been allowed to come into the country. So this is the one that involves the judge up in DC, the chief judge of the US District Court of District of Columbia, Judge James Boasberg. Boasberg. Boasberg. Anyway, Boasberg's central argument

[00:01:26] is that it is inappropriate for President Trump to apply the Alien Enemies Act against Trend Day Aragua or TDA. Boasberg said TDA is not a foreign government against whom the US has declared war.

[00:01:45] Right? And I think we can all agree Trend Day Aragua, TDA, is not an elected or recognized government of Venezuela. Now that doesn't mean that it is completely separate from the Venezuelan government. And this is going to be the problem for Boasberg, I think.

[00:02:10] So this goes to the Alien and Sedition Law, right? Which, like, everybody knows, like, you've probably heard something about that in your K-12 education. You know, John Adams tried to, you know, keep people from saying things and whatever. So this was part of that law.

[00:02:31] And it says that whenever there shall be a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, comma, or any invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States, comma,

[00:02:58] by any foreign nation or government, comma, and the President of the United States shall make public proclamation of the event, all native citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government being males of the age of 14 and upwards who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies. Right? The Alien Enemies Act.

[00:03:27] So, the question is about the commas, as I understand it. Because that's why I said comma after all that. Because when you say that there shall be a declared war between the U.S. and any foreign nation or government, right? We all understand what that means. It's a declaration of war, which that's so passe. America doesn't do that anymore. They'll actually go through Congress to get declarations of war. But then the next part after the comma is,

[00:03:55] or any invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against America. But then there's another comma there, by any foreign nation or government. And I think that's what he is hooking in to the invasion or predatory incursion. So, that's, like, people are confused as to what this means.

[00:04:21] So, like, can you actually have some sort of an invasion occurring if it's not a government-run invasion? And the answer to that is, of course, yes, you can. Of course you can. For example, if the Barbary Coast pirates had sailed over to America with, you know, two, three thousand men under arms and had, you know,

[00:04:48] disembarked their boats and began pillaging villages and such, that would count as an invasion, even though it wasn't necessarily a government-run invasion. It didn't come from a nation-state. So, you could have a declaration of some kind, right? The president could make a declaration, which, by the way, Donald Trump has done against Trende Aragua. It is also a foreign terrorist organization designated as such by the U.S. government.

[00:05:17] So, is the criminal gang activity of Trende Aragua perpetrated, attempted, or threatened by a foreign nation or government? Right? So, if we're going to read it as if it has to be perpetrated by a foreign nation, does this meet the criteria? Does Trende Aragua meet the criteria? And does their relationship with the Venezuelan government meet that definition? So, the New York Times put out a piece the other day and they were like,

[00:05:46] no, it doesn't, it's totally separate, blah, blah, blah. They quoted some, I think they had, it was something like 51 current and former intel chiefs that said, it was something like Russian disinformation or something, I think it was the letter. That's who they were relying on. But then, like a day later, coincidentally or not, I don't know, the Miami Herald put out a massive piece. And I have it right here.

[00:06:16] This was from March 21st. The investigative reporter Antonio Maria Delgado interviewed a team of high-level investigators and analysts who have been following the Venezuelan regime for more than a decade. The only team member to speak on the record is a guy named Gary Bernson. He is among the most highly decorated CIA veterans in recent history.

[00:06:45] And this is from a website called American Greatness by Bart Marquois or Marquois, Marquois? I think it's Marquois. I think it's French. And so he spoke with this guy, Gary Bernson, after the Miami Herald quoted him in its piece, too. And Bernson confirms that TDA was purposely sent to the United States specifically to destabilize our country.

[00:07:14] That's the point. All right. So spring is here, a time of renewal and celebrations. You got graduations, weddings, anniversaries, and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But let me ask you, are all of those treasured moments from days gone by, are they hidden away on old VCR tapes, 8mm films, photos, slides? Are they preserved? Because over time, these precious memories can fade and deteriorate, losing the magic of yesterday.

[00:07:44] At Creative Video, they help you protect what matters most. Their expert team digitizes your cherished family moments and transfers them onto a USB drive, freezing them in time so they can be enjoyed for generations to come. I urge you, do not wait until it's too late. This spring, celebrate your past. Visit Creative Video today and let them preserve your legacy with the love and care that it deserves. Creative Video, preserving family memories since 1997. Located in Mint Hill, just off 485.

[00:08:14] Mail orders are accepted too. Get all the details at createavideo.com. So the Miami Herald quotes a fellow by the name of Gary Bernson. Sorry, Bernson. Bernson. One of the most highly decorated CIA veterans and part of a team that has been following the Venezuelan regime for over a decade. And he says, quote, The Venezuelan regime has assumed operational control of the gang Tren de Aragua, TDA,

[00:08:43] and has trained 300 members of it. They have been given paramilitary training, training them to fire weapons, and more importantly, I would submit, conduct sabotage. They have given them all like a four to six week course. They put those 300 guys through that course. And then they were deploying them into the United States to 20 separate states.

[00:09:12] Bernson is coming forward now because two CIA officials leaked false intelligence to the New York Times recently, claiming the agency has no intelligence connecting TDA with the Venezuelan government. But Bernson showed the reporter in this piece proof of the close relationships among TDA, the Venezuelan military, and the Venezuelan intelligence apparatus,

[00:09:38] along with Cuban intelligence and basically the worst of the worst of the Latin American narco terrorist organizations. He shared not only the intel, but also the sources with elements of the U.S. government. Quote, the CIA doesn't have the information because they refused to look at it, Bernson said. We tried to brief them about all of this three years ago,

[00:10:05] but they were directed by the Biden administration to ignore it. And now those officials are trying to undermine President Trump. That's from the CIA guy. So to conclude, Tren de Aragua is a designated foreign terrorist organization that operates under the direction of a foreign government in conjunction with other foreign terrorist organizations. It is funded and assisted by narco traffickers and Mexican drug cartels.

[00:10:34] It has entered the U.S. clandestinely with the expressed goal of undermining and destabilizing our country and attacking our citizens. It is set on sabotage, including arson. Have we seen recent examples of potential arson? Or, I don't know, maybe some power substations getting taken offline. Stuff like that.

[00:11:04] I mean, I'm not saying it is or is not. I'm just saying I can think of some examples of some events where people were left scratching their heads wondering who would do such a thing and why has nobody ever been caught for this stuff. The TDA was trained, directed, assisted, and funded by the government of Venezuela and its criminal allies who have more firepower than the military forces of several nations. So does this count then?

[00:11:33] Under the law, does this count? Any invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government. Right? There is a term for what these guys are being used as. They are, like, they're cutouts. It's a way that the government can have no fingerprints on the operations so it doesn't blow back on them. Right? So if these TDA guys get caught,

[00:12:03] oh, that's just a cartel. That's just a gang. That's not the government. Because, see, the government, I mean, you could attack the government. But it's just a gang, you see. And so they're autonomous. They're doing their own thing. According to the Miami Herald, which broke this story, a small team of Venezuelans and former U.S. officials with deep connections to police and intelligence in the South American country has been providing information to the Trump administration

[00:12:31] about the number and identities of members of Trende Aragua and other Venezuelan gangs headed to or already in the United States. The group, which has been meeting with high-ranking members of the administration, made a presentation to President Trump's team before he was inaugurated. They detailed links between the TDA gang and the Venezuelan regime. Nicolas Maduro.

[00:13:01] And they provided official documents obtained from Venezuelan police agencies identifying 1,800 gang members believed to have been sent into the United States. This according to three different sources with, quote, knowledge of the situation. So a total of 1,800 people have been deployed into our country that are associated with the TDA and, by extension, the Venezuelan government and military and intel operations.

[00:13:31] 300 of them were trained. Another team member who asked for anonymity to protect the identities of the sources back in Venezuela said the group had access to records from the police agencies of the South American country and that these were provided to the Trump administration. So they're getting police documents, records, from Venezuela.

[00:13:58] That's what the Trump administration has been utilizing. And this has led to the identification and arrests of at least 800 Venezuelans who are believed to be either full-fledged members of TDA or members of smaller affiliated gangs. The team of investigators, which for years have been exposing the threat to the U.S. posed by the Maduro regime, has in the past helped federal investigators in the U.S. target top members of the Caracas government

[00:14:28] accused by the U.S. justice system of running the Soles drug cartel and of high-level corruption through different administrations. See, so this isn't partisan. These aren't a bunch of Trumpers, right? These people have been doing this work for over a decade, different administrations, going after Venezuela's regime, which they say is running a drug cartel, the Soles drug cartel, S-O-L-E-S.

[00:14:59] The TDA members were deliberately sent into the largest American cities to create problems for U.S. law enforcement agencies. But they are not just criminals sent to cause havoc. They are soldiers sent in an asymmetric warfare operation against the United States. That according to one of the members of this team. Trenda Aragua members were also tasked with setting up drug distribution networks in major cities to fill the void created by the crackdown on MS-13.

[00:15:29] That was severely weakened by the arrest of its leadership in El Salvador in 2022. When that new guy got in and built the prison, the Salvadoran gang had served as an important U.S. outlet for the drugs provided by Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, which according to the U.S. law enforcement investigations is one of the top partners of the Venezuelan cartel allegedly headed by Maduro and is number two, the interior minister, Dio Stado Cabello.

[00:15:59] The number two. So you've got all of these narco-terrorist cartels, operating with a state sponsor. And that is funded not just by the drugs, obviously, but the state is funded by their oil revenue and such. And so they create this plan to send people into our country. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway

[00:16:28] in western North Carolina, just a quick drive up the mountain? And Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion, Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breathtaking 14,000 acres of the Pisgah National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

[00:16:57] Centrally located between Asheville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, it's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions. With hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi-Fi, grills, outdoor tables, and your own private covered porch, choose from 13 cabins, 6 cottages, 2 villas, and a great lodge with 11 king-sized bedrooms, Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion.

[00:17:25] And they have pet-friendly accommodations. Call or text 828-367-7068. Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. Let's head over and talk to Ray. Hello, Ray. Welcome to the program. Hello, Pete. Ray, what's up? Um, I was, I was just, I think I'm understanding correctly

[00:17:52] that whether Turrindia, Aragua can be flown out of the country depends on where the commas and the language, how it's interpreted to, uh, so the, uh, Alien Enemies Act can apply to it. Is that part correct that I'm getting? That's my understanding, is that there's a disagreement as to whether or not it applies to only foreign governments,

[00:18:20] or if you can cite an invasion by a non-government entity, um, like a gang. But what the Miami Herald is reporting is that the TDA is actually part of the Venezuelan government, so it would make that point moot. Well, that's, that's my point, is what I'm saying. If they find that they are, Alien Act applies to them,

[00:18:52] anything that would stop the judges from going ahead and ordering Trump to turn the planes around, so to speak, again, and they'll still have to follow the judge's orders until it's appealed and makes it all the way to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court tells them not to do it. Does that sound about right to you? No, I mean, it's the, this is going to go to the Supreme Court, this is a fight that the administration wants to have, because there's no other way to rein in these, these lower courts, these district courts,

[00:19:20] and these, these nationwide injunctions. Yeah. If they, if they, if they want this fight, the administration, and they get it, then it's still going to take, what, two, three years to work its way to the Supreme Court? It's going to just make the agenda on the legal immigration mute for a large part of it. They can get it, they can get it to the, to the Supreme Court quickly, but the Supreme Court has to be willing to take it up. So that's, yeah,

[00:19:49] so they can get it there pretty quickly, but it's still going to be, you know, weeks or months, but yes, it's a delay, and that's, that's the whole point, right? That's the, the whole purpose is to stall for as long as possible on this stuff. So, so you would, I'm asking you this too, you would think they have a better chance of success that way in getting Congress to do away with these judgeships. Yeah, no, they, I don't think that's going to happen. It's going to require, and I'm going to get into that in the next hour. I'm not going to have time

[00:20:18] to get to all of the, the different angles in this hour, but I will take that up in the third hour. Ray, I do appreciate the call, sir. Good to hear from you. Here's a message from Russ who says, trained TDA members, you say? Well, that reminds me. Whatever became of the different power substation attacks like Pinehurst or the series of military members that were followed and had unscheduled utility visits to their homes and the one guy who killed a foreign national posing as a cable guy or something near Fort Bragg. Remember that one? Yeah.

[00:20:48] Yeah, a lot of questions or the random people showing up on military bases and such, right? Almost as if there's some sort of a testing going on, right? The Miami Herald reports 1,281, so just under 1,300, Venezuelan alleged gang members who were part of an estimated 20,000 inmates who had been released from Venezuelan prisons during Maduro's tenure and were told that they had to leave the country

[00:21:18] if they wanted to remain free. Okay? So then, Venezuelan's president, Nicolas Maduro, commie, that guy opened the prisons and released 20,000 inmates. Of the 20,000, about 1,300 of them were told, you have to leave our country or else we're going to throw you back in prison. Information gathered by the team from sources inside the regime points to a plan

[00:21:47] that would place 5,000 gang members inside the United States. This is the equivalent of an oversized combat brigade dispersed through 20 different locations, but with thousands of people that would be able to communicate, move drugs, do whatever they needed, and be able to put pressure on the United States with violence in cities and build out

[00:22:16] a massive criminal infrastructure in America. Bernson said the team became aware of Maduro's plan while conducting an investigation on a separate case. At the time, however, the Biden administration was negotiating with the Maduro regime and when the team, the CIA team, came to give Biden the evidence of what they had found,

[00:22:47] the Biden administration ignored it because they were trying to normalize relations with Maduro. The Trendy Aragua gang formed in the past decade in the notorious Tocaron prison in Venezuela's Aragua state. The gang, members of the gang, act as an armed branch and a hitman squad for the Soles drug cartel, which U.S. prosecutors have said is headed by Nicolas Maduro

[00:23:18] and other high-ranking Venezuelan government officials. So, he's using he's using TDA as a proxy army, as saboteurs, spies, mayhem makers. In addition to the information provided by the team, the Trump administration has been receiving data provided by the police organizations from Peru, Chile, Costa Rica, and Colombia, countries that had large numbers of Trendy Aragua members.

[00:23:47] The gang's presence has been blamed for a surge in violence in those countries, and on Monday, the Peruvian government declared Lima in a state of emergency following the killing of a popular singer who was extorted by criminals. And then they murdered the singer. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do too, and you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News.

[00:24:17] It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check.ground.news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using Ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The Blind Spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left

[00:24:47] and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Although Trendy Aragua members originally moved to countries near Venezuela, they were later encouraged by their controllers in the Venezuelan government

[00:25:16] their handlers to head to the U.S. This is according to our own intelligence operatives who have been investigating Venezuela, Maduro, his regime, the Solas cartel, their connections to the Sinaloa cartel, their connections to Trendy Aragua for over a decade. They have briefed presidents presidents of both parties over that time.

[00:25:47] So in other words, this is not new. This is not new. And they told Trump about all of this and that I'm going to go out on a limb and just guess here that that's why Trump said that this is an invasion and it meets the definition of the Alien Enemies Act. Right? That doesn't that track? Doesn't that make sense? All right. Let me jump over and talk to Marvin. Hello, Marvin.

[00:26:16] Welcome to the show. Yes. Thank you for having me. I had a question for you. It seems like your argument is kind of strewed in the way to me. I'm sorry. Sorry, Marvin. It's kind of what? I can barely hear you through the static. Yes. I was saying that it seems like the premise that you're going on is a little strewed to me because we know that Russia, China, Argentina, and countries like that have been evaded. Yes.

[00:26:46] Argentina. Let me just finish. Because they have agents that infiltrate our countries every year, they are consistently downloading our technology information. We have yet to send one Russian to my knowledge and that they're caught by X-Men knowledge back to Russia. So why is it now that Venezuela and I know why because it's a small country that none of these

[00:27:15] same laws are being applied to a knowledge? If you could just explain that to me, I would really appreciate it. Thank you. Well, so first off, Marvin, your premise is incorrect. Your premise is that there is no attention being paid to any other criminal illegal aliens and that is just that's incorrect. I haven't seen a plane full of bent down handcuffed and sent back. Am I correct or not? I don't know

[00:27:44] what you have seen so I can't tell you what you have or have not seen. The only video, no, Marvin, the only images that were taken and publicized were the plane load of the gang members that got sent down to Ecuador but those are not all TDA members, right? There are different people that are in there. You don't know. Hang on, Marvin. There have been record deportations. They've been going all over the world. So just because you saw one video

[00:28:13] that the administration put out of the one that went down to Ecuador or sorry, El Salvador doesn't mean that there haven't been other deportations occurring. You would agree with that, right? Oh, yes. But that's the only one the administration was showing. That's not right because it was a massive operation. Well, because it was a massive operation because the TDA invasion has been a massive invasion. Well, they didn't have a problem with doing that when they bombed with Houthis.

[00:28:43] So what was the... The Houthis aren't in... The Houthis... We just dropped a bunch of bombs on the Houthis in Yemen. We bombed the bejesus out of them. Yeah, keep the policy the same. If you haven't released information on anybody getting a mix or... Are you on a speakerphone, Marvin? It's very difficult to understand you. There's a lot of noise in the background. I'm trying to follow what you're saying, but I'm sorry. It's just really difficult for me

[00:29:12] to make it out. I apologize. My point was we need to just have the policy be fair and equal to all that are... What's your evidence that they're not? What's your evidence that the policies are not fair and equal? That is correct, sir. So I'm saying if the policy is going to be good for one country, make them good for our country. What is your evidence that they are not? The pictures of a plane

[00:29:42] full of people being... You saw one... You saw one... You saw one flight. Okay, then. Until the government released any others and no have you other than what somebody released, sir. You can look at the numbers of deportations and the countries of origin from where they're going. I personally see anything other than the ones who are... Marvin, Marvin, your ignorance about where the other countries, where the other people are being sent back to

[00:30:10] does not present itself as evidence to support your point. It's just your view, your lack of knowledge of other things. That's not proof of anything. You not knowing something doesn't make something else true. Everybody else is angry but you. I didn't say that. No, Marvin, you are. No, no, Marvin. Marvin, I'm not saying everybody else is. I'm saying you are on this particular issue. Oh, Marvin hung up on me. Oh, Marvin.

[00:30:39] No, I'm sorry, but like, as Rush would say, you know, I live in Realville. There's also the other point here that Marvin, I guess, is also ignorant of, which is that the largest in migration into America for the past decade has, in general, almost every single year been people from South America. Now, that has changed in like the more recent

[00:31:08] two-year span, I want to say. So a lot of Chinese nationals coming in, right? We saw larger numbers from Mauritania or wherever, right? To the point where you've got like these conflicts that are based in stuff from their home countries that now are Eritrea. That was one, right? We had a shootout or something in East Charlotte. A bunch of people that had brought over from their home countries whatever beefs

[00:31:37] and grievances they had back there and they brought them over here. So, I mean, there are different populations, sure. But as far as organized criminal activity, these narco-terrorist and related cartels and organizations, they're the ones that are involved in this operation that the CIA has identified and that's why you're seeing a lot of them getting picked up. But I'm sure in Marvin's world, it's racism, right? That's the reason why I'm assuming, and I thought Marvin was going to eventually get

[00:32:07] there, but he never wanted to pull the trigger on it, but I assume that's what Marvin was getting at, that the only reason that he's aware, because he saw the one image that got released of the plane load that went down to El Salvador, the prison down there, that for some reason that that's the only plane load that we've sent out, and we know that's not true. Now, Marvin doesn't know that's not true. Marvin doesn't care to know if it's not true, but it's not true. We've sent plane loads of deportees all around the world,

[00:32:37] send them back to their home countries. And part of the reason why we have to send them to El Salvador is because Venezuela won't take them. They hate us. They sent them here. Why would they take them back? They released these people from prison, sent them to America, trained about 300 of them to engage in sabote and such. And they're not interested in bringing back their operatives. They deployed those operatives for a purpose. So, no, they're not taking them back.

[00:33:07] So, we put them all on a plane, sent them down to El Salvador that said, hey, we'll take them. And they're cracking down on their gangs too. TDA is running wild down there. And certain countries, certain governments are trying to get them under control. Trendy Aragua operates in conjunction with Cartel de los Soles. That is the Maduro regime-sponsored narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela.

[00:33:37] It commits brutal crimes, murders, kidnappings, extortions, human trafficking, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking. This was why the Alien Enemy Act of 1798 was invoked to assume the authority to expedite the mass deportations of Venezuelans in the U.S. suspected of being gang members because they could make that connection. If we're able to round up

[00:34:06] a cell of Russian terrorists, terrorists, I have no doubt that's going to happen. But the Russians are, I don't know, a little bit better at hiding their tracks. They don't operate in these kinds of cells out in the open. You know, they don't take over entire apartment buildings and evict people and run their criminal enterprises from them. The team of investigators advising the Trump administration said that the formal members of the gang serve as organizational leaders of different cells that have

[00:34:35] recruited other Venezuelans in the U.S. cities that they were sent to. But not all members of the new cells are necessarily considered to be official gang members. So you have like this organization that's led by cartel members or gang members but then you have non-members that are sort of affiliated. This follows the organizational structure the gang implemented inside the Venezuelan prisons where they recruited new members from the general population in order to have the numbers

[00:35:04] to rule the other inmates. And by the way, the DOJ has outstanding drug trafficking indictments against Maduro and his interior minister Cabello who are accused of heading the Soles cartel. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my

[00:35:34] Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.