News Releases and Statements

Brian Manigo and Damien Robinson, of Walterboro, were each sentenced to 10 years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Richard M. Gergel. Kelvin Mitchell, of Ruffkin, was sentenced to 39 months in federal prison. All three defendants were ordered to also pay the costs of medical care for their victims and to serve three years supervised release following their federal prison terms.

Consistent with the agency’s protocols, the appropriate state health and local law enforcement agencies have been notified about the death, as have the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility. Additionally, ICE has advised Salvadoran consular representatives.

Martavious Detrel Banks Keys, aka “Cheese” and “Matt,” 34, was convicted in February 2017, following a three-day jury trial, on two counts of child sex trafficking and one count of sex trafficking through force, fraud or coercion. Keys had been in custody since his arrest in May 2016.

All of the targets in this operation were criminal in nature. 93% of those that were arrested were convicted criminals and 87% of them had prior felony convictions.

Thomas J. Montieth, 65, was discovered by an undercover HSI special agent while using peer-to-peer file sharing software to distribute child pornography images from July 22 to Aug. 5, 2016. HSI special agents executed a federal search warrant Sep. 7 at Montieth’s residence where they discovered his desktop computer and flash drive contained 21,244 images and 394 videos of child pornography.

Michael Sebastian Ford, 24, from Lubbock, Texas was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 150 months. Ford pleaded guilty in February 2017 to one count of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.

According to court documents, Jose Francisco Grijalva Monroy, 49, a citizen of El Salvador, testified that as a soldier in the Salvadoran army, he tortured suspected guerrillas by hanging them by their hands from trees and slapping their chests with his bare hands.

According to documents filed in the case, on July 6, 2016, Kelly Turner, 35, of San Angelo, Texas, distributed two images depicting a minor female engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Baldemar Solis, from Arlington, was sentenced June 9 by U.S. District John McBryde to a term of life imprisonment. Solis, who had been a fugitive since 2012, was arrested in September 2016 and has been in custody since his arrest.

Vanessa Hernandez, 24, from Guadalajara, Mexico, was sentenced June 9 by U.S. District George P. Kazen to 100 months in federal prison. Since she is not a U.S. citizen, she is expected to face deportation proceedings following her release from prison. Hernandez pleaded guilty to the charges Sept. 6, 2016.

ICE HSI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Nick Annan and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Atlanta Field Office Director Robert M. Del Toro signed an MOA between the agencies Wednesday to implement the Atlanta Trade Enforcement Coordination Center (TECC).

ICE deportation officers conduct targeted enforcement operations every day in locations around the country as part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to protect the nation, uphold public safety, and protect the integrity of our immigration laws and border controls.

John Kevin Waldrip, 44, of Angleton, came to the attention of law enforcement following an investigation into persons using the Internet to traffic in child pornography via peer-to-peer software. A detective with PPD was able to locate and identify a computer as offering to participate in the receipt of child pornography videos through a peer-to-peer network on the Internet. 

Dwight Horton, 51, from Grand Prairie, Texas, and former mission support specialist with ICE HSI, was sentenced June 7 by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade to a three-year term of probation and ordered to pay $36,000 in restitution to HSI. Horton pleaded guilty August 2016.

Following a referral from the Puerto Rico Police Department’s (PRPD) Cyber Crimes Division and an HSI investigation, a federal grand jury indicted Geovanni Velázquez-Méndez, 36, for production of child pornography, sexual enticement of a minor and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual conduct. 

Guan Ying Li, 50, also known as “Henry Li,” from Hong Kong, China, pleaded guilty in 2014 to attempting to provide material support and resources to “Shining Path,” a terrorist organization designated by the U.S. Department of State. The original goal of Shining Path was to overthrow the government of Peru and replace it with a Maoist socialist system.

D’mar Dwain Jennings Conway, 29, who pleaded guilty March 7 to sexual exploitation of children, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White. In his plea agreement, Conway admitted coercing the victim, for whom he served as a caregiver, to engage in sex acts for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of the conduct. The defendant further admitted that numerous pictures he took of himself engaging in sex acts with the child, who was approximately 3 to 6 years old, were taken inside Conway’s residence.

The ERO Fugitive Operations Teams in Dallas and Oklahoma are part of the nationwide teams that focus on aliens who pose a serious threat to national security or public safety, including members of transnational street gangs, child sex offenders and aliens with prior convictions for violent crimes. The enforcement operations conducted by the ERO Dallas and Oklahoma Fugitive Operations Teams are just one facet of the Department of Homeland Security's broader strategy to heighten the federal government’s effectiveness at identifying and removing dangerous criminal aliens from the United States.

Arturo Castro, 52, of Wilmette, Illinois, pleaded to one count of use of an interstate facility to persuade a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity.

According to court documents, Oniel Christopher Russell, a/k/a OG Russell, 39, an illegally present Jamaica national, threatened to kill an employee of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services by phone in October 2016 after posting a video of himself called “cop killer” on YouTube. Prior to this incident, Russell had previously been found in possession of a Ruger firearm by deputies with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in August 2013. It is a felony for an illegally present foreign national to possess a firearm.

Rolando Benitez, aka “San Luis,” 35, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle to 245 months in federal prison. Benitez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute a Schedule I controlled substance in October 2016.

According to court documents, Luis Bernardo Gonzalez-Martinez, 29, was convicted of burglary May 26, 2009. He was removed from the United States in June 2012 and again in June 2013. On April 1, 2017, immigration officers encountered Gonzalez-Martinez, a member of the Sureños (Sur 13) street gang, back in the United States illegally.

Daniel Evaristo Soto-Hernandez, 35, was transferred to the custody of Mexican authorities by San Diego-based officers from ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations’ (ERO) Special Response Team.

Rodrigo Garcia-Fuentes, from McAllen, Texas, pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Randy Crane, who accepted the guilty plea and set sentencing for Aug. 15, 2017.