News Releases and Statements

Gabriel Garrido Isaias, 41, from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, was originally charged by criminal complaint March 15, 2019, and was later remanded to custody. On April 9, a Laredo grand jury returned the two-count indictment charging him with conspiracy to import and importing methamphetamine into the United States. Garrido Isaias is scheduled to be arraigned April 18.

Univar USA Inc. (Univar), a subsidiary of Univar Inc., of Downers Grove, Illinois, has agreed to pay the United States $62.5 million to settle allegations under the customs penalty statute that it was grossly negligent or negligent when it imported 36 shipments of transshipped saccharin between 2007 and 2012.

Pal Singh, a/k/a “Surinder Singh,” a/k/a “Harpal Singh,” 67, an Indian national, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas to an information charging him with one count of attempted naturalization fraud.

The individuals arrested throughout New Jersey were nationals of Brazil (3), Costa Rica (3), Dominican Republic (1), Ecuador (16), El Salvador (8), Guatemala (24), Honduras (14), Jamaica (1), Mexico (41), Nicaragua (1), Peru (6), Poland (2), Spain (2), and Trinidad (1).

Danny R. Jones, 37, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark to 18 years in federal prison without parole.  On June 27, 2018, he pleaded guilty to possessing heroin with the intent to distribute.

Lothar Konrad Krauth, 81, from Great Falls, pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography as charged in an indictment. Krauth faces a minimum mandatory five years to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

Uriel Gonzalez-Perez, 32, of Douglas, Ariz., was sentenced on April 4, 2019, by U.S. District Judge James A. Soto for separate offenses to concurrent terms of 120 months’ imprisonment and 46 months’ imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release.

Sebastian Rosales entered the U.S. as a nonimmigrant visitor in 1988. He was arrested in Florida in 1993 for vehicle theft and burglary and sentenced to a year and a half of probation. It is unknown when he departed the U.S. for Canada.

Bill Lawrence Jr., 57, of Branson, Missouri, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark to 15 years in federal prison without parole; he pleaded guilty to the charges on Aug. 28, 2018.

Following his release from the Maricopa County Jail on February 26, 2019, Abel Reyes-Clemente, 54, was transferred to ICE custody after serving jail time on a misdemeanor conviction for driving under the influence. Relevant records indicate Mr. Reyes had been repatriated five times, most recently in 2008.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Winston-Salem and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation arrested Alyson Brooke Saunders Friday morning. Saunders faces the following state charges: four counts of indecent liberties with a minor, six counts of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, two counts of sexual offense with a child by an adult, and two counts of crime against nature.

Hakeem James Hughes, 30, previously pleaded guilty to using minors to produce child pornography. Hughes coerced and persuaded minors to engage in sexual acts with him, often providing them phones and electronic games in exchange, and video recorded the encounters.

Dwayne Thomas, 35, is wanted to face murder charges and Mwando Lloyd Pryce, 31, is wanted to face charges of robbery, attempted murder and wounding with intent.

Oscar Rendon-Gonzalez, an illegal alien from Mexico, was indicted April 3 by a federal grand jury charging him with unlawful re-entry of a deported alien.

A criminal complaint was Tuesday in federal court in Central Islip charging William Umberto Martinez Chavez, 40, with illegal reentry into the United States. Martinez Chavez was a member of the MS-13 Gang and previously found guilty of manslaughter for a fatal stabbing on Long Island.

Baltazar Arrieta-Lara, 52, a resident of Rusk County, Texas, pleaded guilty April 2 to making a false statement in a passport application before U.S. Magistrate Judge K. Nicole Mitchell.

Three people accused of being part of an international drug trafficking ring are in custody on federal charges alleging they used the Darknet to obtain drugs and offer narcotics for sale, and then shipped pound quantities of methamphetamine to buyers in the Philippines, New Zealand, Poland and other foreign destinations.