News Releases and Statements

Muhanad Elfatih M.A. Badawi, 25, of Anaheim, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who called the defendant “extraordinarily dangerous.”

HSI special agents in the United States traced this Kik screen name to Jason Marc Janatsch, 26, of Oklahoma City, who worked at a local daycare center.

Sandra Nsobundu, 49, Chudy Nsobundu, 57, wife and husband from Katy, Texas, pleaded guilty to forced-labor charges; the husband also pleaded guilty to visa fraud.

Matthew Anthony Keller, 24, of Watauga, Texas, faces a statutory penalty of not less than 15 years and not more than 30 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and a lifetime of supervised release. Keller has been in custody since his arrest in July 2016 on a related federal complaint.

The men charged in the complaint were Sergio Ramses Mucino, 42, Jose Sanchez-Ocampo, 37, and Marguin Sanchez, 22, all of Buffalo. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine.

Calvin Anthony Miller, aka “Serious,” 34, and his cousin, Henry Dailey, 36, were charged with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City. Miller and Dailey remain in federal custody pending a detention hearing on Oct. 20.

Angelo Harper Jr., 21, was sentenced Monday to 235 months in prison and lifetime supervised release by U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner. Harper was convicted of advertising child pornography after a trial in July. He also pleaded guilty in July to distributing child pornography and possession of child pornography.

Robert Blaine Harris, 50, of Fort Worth, has been in custody since his arrest in January 2016.

Samuel Velasco Gurrola, 41, was convicted on three counts of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and four counts of conspiracy to cause foreign travel for murder for hire. According to evidence presented during trial, in 2008, Velasco Gurrola was married to Ruth Sagredo Escobedo.

Michael Acosta, aka “Guantes,” 23, of Oakland, pleaded guilty in June to the charges, which stem from a probe by ICE's HSI and the Oakland Police Department. In pleading guilty, Acosta admitted that in January 2013 he conspired with three others to rob a jewelry store owner at gunpoint.

Michael J. Foreste, aka Beast, 36, of Valley Stream, New York, was convicted on eight counts related to conspiracy and distribution of Oxycodone in Vermont, and two counts of money laundering in a two-week trial that ended Thursday.

Filip Lucian Simion, 23, made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kristen L. Mix Oct. 17. Three others were also indicted for importing controlled substances and money laundering.

Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, 24, a refugee born in Iraq, pleaded guilty Oct. 17 to one count of attempting to provide material support — specifically himself — to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Al Hardan entered the United States as a refugee on Nov. 2, 2009.

According to the California State Bar, Hall was disbarred in 2012 for “misconduct in three loan modification matters.”

Jason Michael Ludke, 35, of Milwaukee, was charged in a criminal complaint with attempting to provide material support or resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a designated foreign terrorist organization commonly referred to as ISIL, ISIS or the Islamic State. Yosvany Padilla-Conde, 30, also of Milwaukee, was charged in the same complaint with aiding and abetting Ludke’s attempt to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, ISIL.

According to the facts presented at trial, between September and December 2013, Rande Brian Isabella, 59, of Hubbard, Ohio, communicated via phone and online with a 14-year-old girl in Colorado.

Initially begun as a pilot initiative in 2013, the Human Exploitation Rescue Operative, or HERO Corps, program has now trained more than 100 former U.S. military members in computer forensics and law enforcement support of online child sexual exploitation cases. In May 2015, the President signed the HERO Act into law, which formalized the program within ICE’s Cyber Crimes Center.

NCMEC honored HSI Special Agents Christopher Neville, Henry Cook and Eli Bupp for their race against the clock to stop the sexual abuse of five young girls who were being photographed and had their images posted online. The agents used advanced technology, extensive man hours, and clues found in the images of abuse to identify and locate the children hundreds of miles away. The children were rescued and the abuser arrested.

Operation Blood Klot, a joint investigation that began in April 2015, focused on the trafficking of drug and firearms in Kingston and Poughkeepsie, a scheme led by alleged Bloods gang street boss, Recardo Langston, 31, Romell Hearn, 37 and Marcus Fisher, 39. The individuals listed in the indictment are alleged gang members who have pledged allegiance to violent street gangs like the G-Shine and Sex, Money, Murder, cliques of the Bloods gang.

According to the plea agreement, on March 1, 2015, Thomas Samborski, II, 41, of Orange County, made sexually suggestive posts involving photographs of three minor children on a file sharing Internet site. 

Reginald Glenn Patterson, 45, of Los Angeles, was also ordered to serve 10 years supervised release following the completion of his prison sentence by U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr.

Ever Alonso Deras-Morales, 26, was transported by bus to the U.S. Mexico border at Laredo, Texas, and transferred to Mexican authorities Oct. 11.

Devon Brown, 24, of Everett, Massachusetts, is alleged to have transported a woman from Massachusetts to Rhode Island for the purpose of commercial sexual activity.