News Releases and Statements

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and law enforcement partners conducted an operation July 30, where former NBA star Gilbert Arenas and five other defendants — including a suspected high-level member of an Israeli transnational organized crime group — were arrested on a federal indictment alleging they operated an illegal gambling business in which high-stakes poker games were played at an Encino mansion Arenas owned.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Philadelphia and Homeland Security Investigations Philadelphia, IRS Philadelphia and ATF Philadelphia arrested Silvestre Herrera-Vasquez, a 48-year-old citizen of Mexico, in Malvern July 28.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Philadelphia removed Olvin Mauricio Martinez Coto, a citizen of Honduras with a final order of removal, to Honduras July 23. Martinez Coto is a foreign fugitive wanted by law enforcement authorities in Honduras for aggravated femicide, attempted homicide, and forcible entry to a home.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Philadelphia, Homeland Security Investigations Philadelphia and IRS Philadelphia arrested Oscar Adalberto Penate, a 56-year-old citizen of El Salvador, in Pottstown July 27.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Maine arrested an illegally present Jamaican offender after he unlawfully attempted to purchase a firearm.

Sydney Lori Reid, 44, of the District of Columbia, was charged July 23 in U.S. District Court with assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Newark, alongside partners from Enforcement and Removal Operations, Newark arrested four illegally present child predators over the course of as many days in connection with an ongoing effort targeting illegal aliens with histories of child exploitation, titled “Operation Apex Predator.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 214 illegal aliens for immigration offenses in the Houston area in the past six months who have been charged or convicted of a sex offense involving a minor.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Buffalo arrested Wahota Allassane Ouattara upon his release from the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in Comstock July 23. The 38-year-old illegal alien from the Côte d'Ivoire has an extensive criminal history that includes nine convictions in the United States, including arson and assault.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Buffalo arrested Salvadoran national Jacobo Argueta Fuentes pursuant to a warrant of deportation upon his release from the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision July 23 in Ossining.

Arsenio Valladares, 44, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful reentry of a deported alien July 7 at the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts.

Crescencio Diaz-Diaz, 36, and Marcelo Perez-Santiz, 33, both of Mexico, have been charged in federal court with illegal reentry of a previously removed alien. Diaz-Diaz has also been charged with possession and use of fraudulent employment authorization documents as part of an ongoing investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mario Sandoval, a 27-year-old resident of Houston, was found guilty of conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens at the end of a one-day trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Personnel from HSI Buffalo and the Buffalo Police Department arrested Aden Ibrahim, 29, on July 9 for alleged unlawful possession of ammunition by a convicted felon.

The operation ran from July 12 to July 20 and resulted in the arrests of one alien wanted for murder, one wanted for human trafficking, five wanted for or convicted of sex related offenses (including sex assault and sexual exploitation of a minor), nine charged with or convicted of drug related offenses, 13 charged with or convicted of assault, eight charged with or convicted of theft charges (including burglary, robbery and motor vehicle theft) and 17 with charges or convictions related to driving under the influence.

A Santa Clara County man and former engineer at a Southern California company pleaded guilty July 21 to stealing trade secret technologies developed for use by the United States government to detect nuclear missile launches, track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, and to allow U.S. fighter planes to detect and evade heat-seeking missiles.

Anthony Marcus Kelly, 38, faces federal charges including threatening to assault, kidnap or murder a United States official, as well as transmitting communications containing threats to kidnap or injure another person.

Tien Xuan Phan, a 55-year-old citizen of Vietnam in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was pronounced deceased by the Methodist Hospital Northeast July 19.

ICE arrested Pierre Reginald Boulos, a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. and citizen of Haiti, for contributing to that nation's destabilization.

A south Texas man was sentenced to 20 years for possessing images of sexual assaults of prepubescent children following an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations Rio Grande Valley Child Exploitation Task Force with assistance from U.S. Border Patrol, Raymondville Police Department and Willacy County Sheriff’s Office.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are on the streets every day, bravely executing the agency’s mission to locate, arrest and remove egregious criminal aliens from the United States in line with the president’s policy of “worst first.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations special agents arrested Aneudy Jazzan Pérez-Santiago, a 30-year-old teacher from Carolina, on criminal charges related to child exploitation.

On July 10, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations special agents arrested Lizamarie Rivera-García, a 42-year-old woman from Bayamón, charged with sex trafficking of children.

“I’m tremendously relieved that this CBP officer will recover, but the bottom line is that this shouldn’t have happened,“ said acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons. “It is clear these criminal aliens have no respect for laws or, quite frankly, for life. ICE’s mission remains to remove this exact type of heinous criminal from our streets, and it will continue to do just that.”

The ICE Boston arrest of an illegal Dominican national unlawfully residing in Lawrence resulted in his conviction for illegally reentering the U.S. after deportation