News Releases and Statements

ICE's top 5 news stories for the week ending June 3, 2016

DJ Drywall, Inc., and its owner David L. Jones, 47, pleaded guilty in February to knowingly encouraging and inducing a Mexican national to reside in the United States in violation of the law. 

The HSI office in The Hague provided 2,084 financial leads developed over a five month period monitoring money transfers, helping their European partners connect two parallel investigations into the Athens-based operation providing falsified documents to TCNs in EU Member States and other countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

All four men were sentenced following an 11-count indictment handed down in August 2015. Frankforter and Poynter were sentenced for distribution of methamphetamine; Craver and Jayne were sentenced for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Atul Nanda, 46, and his brother, Jiten “Jay” Nanda, 45, were each sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn to 87 months in federal prison.  Each was convicted on one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, one count of conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens, and four counts of wire fraud.

HSI special agents arrested Haena Park, 40, of New York, Thursday on commodities fraud and wire fraud charges, stemming from her alleged scheme to defraud investors. Park solicited investments for the purpose of trading in a variety of securities and commodities, including off-exchange foreign currency contacts through the use of false and misleading statements.

Derek “Swede” Godfrey, 46, formerly of Rocklin, is charged with one count of possession of child pornography. The case is the product of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Boch is the seventh detainee to pass away in ICE custody in fiscal year 2016.

Jaquan Casanova aka “Cass, Joffe, Joffy and/or Joffy Joe,” 24, of Boston, was convicted following a seven-day trial on charges of tampering with a witness and lying to a federal agent about his involvement in the sex trafficking ring. 

Juan Manuel Vargas-Aguilar, aka “Chacalilla,” 46, of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, previously pleaded guilty for his role in two separate drug conspiracies. U.S. District Marina Garcia Marmolejo sentenced Vargas-Aguilar June 2 for a conspiracy spanning June 10, 2011 to June 4, 2013, and for a second conspiracy that occurred Oct. 4, 2014.

According to evidence presented at trial, MS-13 is a national and transnational gang with branches or “cliques” operating throughout the United States, including in Plainfield.  All of the defendants were members of the Plainfield Locos Salvatrucha (PLS) Clique of MS-13. 

The graduation was the culmination of a six-week program in which agency representatives met with the “Explorers” every Saturday with the goal of enhancing HSI’s relationship with the youth of the Baltimore community, while providing a well-balanced program that developed character, leadership, citizenship and life skills.

Marco Antonio Rojas-Lobato, 35, was transferred by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers to the custody of representatives from the Mexican Attorney General’s Office. An arrest warrant issued in August 2002 by a judge in Mexico City charges Rojas with murder.

The federal Animal Welfare Act makes it a felony punishable by up to five years in prison to fight dogs or to possess, train, sell, buy, deliver, receive or transport dogs intended for use in dog fighting. 

According to court documents, agents from HSI determined that Alan Kenneth Thompson, Jr., 33, of Crystal River, had been using a mobile app to post and receive images depicting child pornography online. The agents tracked the activity to Thompson’s residence.

Noe Aranda-Soto, aka “Diablo,” 36, of San Carlos, Michoacan, Mexico, pleaded guilty to kidnapping resulting in death, use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence resulting in death, and conspiracy to transport aliens for private financial gain resulting in death. 

Erik Molinar-Gonzalez, 32, of Los Lunas, New Mexico, was arrested in September 2015 and charged by criminal complaint with heroin and methamphetamine trafficking offenses. According to the complaint, on Sept. 9, 2015, New Mexico State Police (NMSP) officers found a kilogram of heroin in a vehicle during a traffic stop on Interstate 40 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Norma Patricia Rivera, 40, from Deming, was arrested in May 2015 on a criminal complaint charging her with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.  The complaint alleged that Rivera committed the crime in Luna County, New Mexico, on May 20, 2015.

Michael Skillern, 49, of Houston, Texas, received 10 years imprisonment, Jon Craig Nelson, 69, Houston, Texas, received eight years imprisonment, Naadir Cassim, 40, of Barcelona, Spain, and Orlando received five years imprisonment, and Adriana Maria Camargo, a/k/a Adriana Palomino, 37, of Barcelona, Spain, received two years imprisonment.

Three individuals – Ijaz Khan, 42, and Vera Lautt, 56, both of Sante Fe, New Mexico, and Ibrar Khan, of Pakistan – face charges for conspiracy to defraud the United States and naturalizing and procuring U.S. citizenship by fraud. Ijaz Khan, along with Fahad Khan, of Pakistan, face additional charges, including smuggling artifacts from Pakistan into the United States and obstructing justice.

Actor Mark Wayne Salling, best known for his role as Noah Puckerman on the television show “Glee,” was charged Friday in a federal indictment with receiving and possessing child pornography on his laptop computer and a flash memory drive.

Son Chong Fulton, 57, of Edwardsville, Illinois, received the sentence for structuring currency deposits to avoid IRS reporting requirements. The judge also ordered Fulton to forfeit $191,800, and ordered her to pay a fine of $34,185 and a special assessment of $100. 

Those arrested had criminal histories with past convictions for drug trafficking, DUI, weapons violations, child sex offenses, identity theft, child abuse and other serious criminal offenses. Fifteen of those taken into custody were criminal aliens who now face federal prosecution for re-entry after deportation, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.