News Releases and Statements

A federal grand jury indicted 13 people Tuesday in two related cash-for-food-stamp benefit fraud cases involving a total of more than a $580,000 in food stamps. The indictments resulted from an investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Office of Inspector General, with assistance from U.S. ICE's Homeland Security...

Special agents with U. S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) on Monday returned 14,600 dollars to an elderly victim of telemarketing con artists operating from Canada. The money was returned Feb. 28 to an 89-year-old Chicago woman following a multi-agency investigation under a joint U.S.-Canada initiative called Project COLT.

U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) announced today the arrests of 678 gang members and associates from 133 different gangs during Project Southern Tempest, an intensive ICE HSI-led law enforcement operation executed in 168 U.S. cities targeting gangs affiliated with drug trafficking organizations.

Thomas Neal, 41, of Roseville, Calif., pleaded guilty to possessing and receiving visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In entering his guilty plea, Neal admitted that in February 2010, he possessed a computer hard drive and several computer disks containing more than 800 still images and more than 200 videos, each of which showed minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Ranferi Osorio, 27, and his brother, Otilio Osorio, 22, were arrested Feb. 28 at their home on East Colonial Drive in Lancaster, Texas. Each Osorio brother is charged with possessing firearms with an obliterated serial number. An additional defendant, Kelvin Leon Morrison, 25, who is charged in a separate federal criminal complaint, was arrested at his home next door to the Osorio brothers.

Douglas Lee Ebersbach, 51, was charged in a three-count indictment filed Oct. 25, 2010. After a three-day trial, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on all three counts of the indictment.

Steven Demink, 41, of Redford, Mich., was indicted by a federal grand jury in November on 13 counts related to the sexual exploitation of children, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced.

U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus, sentenced Brahim Lajqi, 51, an ethnic Albanian from Kosovo, residing in Silver Spring, Md., today to five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for visa fraud.

Daniel James Broussard, 22, of Tulsa, Okla., former assistant manager of the Grand Theater in Lafayette, was sentenced today in federal court to 40 years in prison and lifetime of supervised release for using a facility in interstate commerce attempting to coerce a minor to engage in criminal sexual acts.

Two men, who were charged separately in related cases, were sentenced to federal prison on Monday for their involvement in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine and launder the drug proceeds.

Patrick Carney of Manchester, N.H., was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison for his role in a child exploitation enterprise.

Following a joint investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the FBI, Moussa Ali Hamdan, a former resident of Brooklyn, N.Y., has been charged with conspiring to provide material support to Hizballah. The 38-year-old is a dual citizen of the United States and Lebanon.

Howard Industries, Inc., one of the largest employers in Mississippi, pled guilty in federal court Thursday to knowingly violating the federal criminal conspiracy law in its employment of illegal aliens at the company's electrical transformer plant in Laurel, Miss., following an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Timothy S. Kelly, 40, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns to four counts of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

The president of two Chicago-area staffing companies that supplied temporary workers to suburban warehouses has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for hiring illegal aliens to form his labor pool. The sentence resulted from a worksite enforcement investigation conducted by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Raymond Watts, 55, of Kingston, Ga., a teacher at Mill Creek Middle School, appeared in federal court Thursday after being arrested for distribution and possession of child pornography by special agents with U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers arrested 24 foreign nationals during a six-day enforcement action in South Florida targeting convicted criminal aliens identified in violation of U.S. immigration law.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) - along with federal, state and local law enforcement officials from across the country - joined forces this week in a series of coordinated strikes against Mexican drug cartels and their associates.

A federal judge sentenced two alien smugglers to 60 months in federal prison Friday for their role in a fatal maritime smuggling incident after an overloaded wooden boat capsized, killing two of the more than 20 illegal aliens and smugglers onboard. The case was investigated by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations.

Dewayne Joseph was sentenced to 352 months in prison following an investigation led by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). On Nov. 9, 2010, Joseph was convicted by a federal jury for possessing a firearm after being previously convicted of a felony, possessing with the intent to distribute five grams or more of crack cocaine...

A Chinese national in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since Feb. 14 passed away on Feb. 23 at the Lock Haven Hospital in Lock Haven, Pa., of an apparent suicide.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment Thursday charging Bakersfield, Calif., shop owner Eric Huggins with one count of trafficking in counterfeit goods following an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

The activation earlier this week of Secure Communities in six northern California jurisdictions - Alpine, Del Norte, Lassen, Sierra, Siskiyou and Trinity counties - means the program's vital information-sharing capability is, for the first time, accessible to law enforcement agencies in all 58 of the state's counties.

A federal grand jury in Richmond has indicted 22 members of a fraudulent document trafficking organization based in Mexico with cells in 19 cities and 11 states, including three cells in Virginia. Discovered through an ongoing investigation dubbed Operation Phalanx, the organization is accused of kidnapping, beating and murdering competitors...

"The announcement today by Mexican authorities of an arrest in the shooting of ICE Special Agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila is a welcome development. We are encouraged by this action and appreciate the efforts by Mexico to bring Special Agent Zapata's killers to justice."