A tattoo belonging to a man from Derbantshire has appeared in a document from the United States government used to identify members of a notorious Venezuelan gang, despite the fact that man has no connection with the group.
Pete Belton, 44, of Ilkeston, says he was surprised to find his forearm appeared in a document of the Department of National Security (DHS) used to help identify the alleged members of the Train of Aragua (ADD), a transnational criminal organization.
“I’m just a medium -sized man from Derbantshire’s Avarage,” he told BBC Verify.
Belton said he was a “a bit strange, a bit fun at first”, but now he is worried that the family trip that he reserved for Miami with his wife and daughter in August could end “being a six -month vacation for Guantanamo.”
Pete BeltonThe Trump administration has already deported hundreds of alleged gang members to A high security prison in El Salvador. The lawyers of some of those deportees say they have an incorrectly identified leg as TDA members based on their tattoos.
The tattoo of Mr. Belton, a clock face with the date and time of the birth of his daughter, was included in a set of nine images to “detect and identify” the members of TDA. Other tattoos had stars, crowns and a Michael Jordan “Jumpman” logo.
“The open source material has represented TDA members with a combination of tattoos below,” he says The document that appeared in the judicial presentations.
But inverse image searches show that several of the images appeared for the first time on tattoos websites without obvious links to Venezuela or ADD.
One of them led BBC Verify to an Instagram publication by a tattoo artist based in Nottingham that he published about Mr. Belton’s tattoo almost a decade ago.
The image of the tattoo in the DHS document is of worse quality than the Instagram publication, which was shared in 2016, but it is clearly the same arm and presents the same tattoo of the watch face.
The same image of Mr. Belton’s tattoo also appeared in a September 2024 report By the Texas Public Security Department (DPS) about the activity of ADD.
BBC Verify contacted both the US DHS and Texas DPS on the source of the images, but did not receive an answer.
But in an email, the DHS said he trusted the intelligence of his application of the law and that “his evaluations go far beyond the tattoos and social networks of gang members.”
It is not clear exactly how Mr. Belton’s tattoo ended in the United States documents, but is worried about being linked to the gang.
“In my head, I am thinking if I am working on the border force and I saw myself walking, I would think ‘hey, we have one, he is the document'”.
He provided multiple images of the tattoo to prove that he is his, and says that there is no association with the Venezuelan group.
Pete BeltonThe United States government has not deported anyone based on their tattoos alone, according to the comments of an immigration and customs application (ICE) Officer in a judicial presentation last month.
However, judicial documents show that immigration officials are using a point -based system known as the “Alien enemy validation guide” Determine that Ify is left to the Venezuelan gang.
It includes a command box, and according to the document, eight AFFoss points, a series of categories could be reasons for trial or deportation.
Half or these points can be given if a “subject has tattoos that denote membership or loyalty to ADD”.
The document says that if the eight points come from the category of symbolism, which includes tattoos, then an additional consultation should be taken before designating someone as a TDA member.
The Venezuelan research journalist Ronna Risquez, who wrote a book about the origins of TDA, said that tattoos are only evidence of membership.
“TDA has no tattoos that identify the gang,” he said.
“To confirm if a person is a TDA member, the authorities must conduct a police investigation to determine if he has a criminal record. A tattoo, his clothes or his nationality are not evidence.”
However, there are bone cases in which lawyers have argued that people are free of legs identified in their tattoos and were deported subsignarly.
US media. They have informed about a man whose lawyers say he was deported due to a crown tattoo that was inspired by the Real Madrid Football Club logo.
Another case saw a makeup artist Sent to El Salvador after his tattoo of a crown with the words “mom” and “dad” was used by US officials as evidence of gang membership, according to his lawyers.
Back in Derbyshire, Belton says that his family has considered his trip to the United States due to potential risks, but they will monitor how history develops.
“I hope you realize that I am not a Venezuelan gangster, but I have seen that things happen in recent news, so we will wait and see.”
