News Releases and Statements

Former Maryland healthcare employee Derrick Elrod was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for bank fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with a scheme to use stolen personal identities to open bank accounts and fraudulently obtain cash, merchandise and services.

According to court documents, Manasse was a leader of the Bloods street gang known as the Brick City Brims.

Six of the defendants were taken into custody Wednesday morning by HSI special agents.

Manuel Rivas, an El Salvadoran man illegally present in the United States, was sentenced to six years in federal prison July 17. Rivas obstructed his deportation by refusing to complete paperwork required to obtain travel documents for a return trip to his home country.

Donnie Ray Sumner, of Joplin, Mo., was charged in a one-count indictment that alleges he received and distributed child pornography over the Internet between July 1, 2012 and Jan. 21, 2013. Sumner is a registered sex offender due to a 2001 conviction for possessing child pornography.

Dustin E. James, of Republic, Mo., was charged in a two-count indictment alleging he used a minor to produce child pornography between July 1, 2012 and April 24, 2013. The indictment also alleges that James received and distributed child pornography over the Internet between Jan. 1, 2011 and April 24, 2013.

Jose Antonio Garcia-Gonzalez, of Branson, Mo., was charged in a two-count federal indictment alleging he trafficked in methamphetamine and illegally possessed several firearms.

Wayne Harlan Files, of Lebanon, Mo., was charged in a one-count indictment that alleges Files received child pornography over the Internet. Files became a registered sex offender following his 1993 conviction for forcible sodomy.

Two Mexican nationals, who fled to the United States to avoid prosecution for separate murders in their native country, were turned over to Mexican authorities at the border crossing in San Ysidro, Calif., Tuesday following their recent capture in Los Angeles by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Executive Recycling, the corporation, was sentenced to pay a $4.5 million fine and serve three years on probation.

Two men and a woman are in custody facing state charges following the discovery Monday of a massive illegal marijuana cultivation operation in this small community south of Stockton. The nearly 16,000 marijuana plants, valued at more than $30 million, were intermingled with stalks of corn in an effort to conceal them.

Jeremiah Paul Selman, 34, from Port Neches, Texas, pleaded guilty March 21 to possessing child pornography. He was sentenced July 23 to 78 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Marcia Crone. Selman was indicted by a federal grand jury Jan. 10 on child pornography charges.

According to court documents, Delfino Bazan, 44, of Rio Grande City and Houston, and his common-law wife, Alejandrina Martinez, 43, of Houston, were arrested at their Houston residence Monday. Both are charged with conspiring to launder proceeds from drug trafficking. Bazan is also charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana and several substantive drug trafficking counts.

Dylan Joral Ritter pleaded guilty Monday to production of child pornography, following a probe by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and several other law enforcement agencies. Ritter admitted to downloading Internet child pornography, to sexually abusing a 3-year-old relative and to taking photos of the abuse with his cellphone camera.

Timothy Valdez, 37, appeared in federal court before U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O'Neill.

Shem Michahdavid Weissman, aka Brody Gold, 24, pleaded guilty in February to one count of trafficking in counterfeit goods.

Jose Luis Castillo-Madrigal, of Beloit, Wis., was sentenced July 19 for conspiring to possess marijuana with intent to distribute and distributing marijuana. He pleaded guilty to the charges May 15.

Michael John Ebenhoeh pleaded guilty in April following an investigation by the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Investigators determined that between November 2010 and July 2011, multiple digital files of child pornography involving very young children were downloaded and offered for sharing from Ebenhoeh's residence.

Daniel Munteanu, a Romanian national who traveled to the U.S. to facilitate an online auction scheme to scam eBay buyers, pleaded guilty Monday to bank fraud, following an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Ryan Balletto and Patrick Pearmain were charged Monday with conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana and with using a minor to process plants at a large-scale grow operation on property owned by one of the men. Balletto and Pearmain subjected the 15-year-old runaway to sexual abuse during the time they held her captive.

The five defendants arrested include: Dien Le, Ponlue Pim, Pirun Pim, Ricky Pim and Kenneth Barnes. They appeared in U.S. District Court in Denver July 22 where they were advised of their rights and the charges pending against them. They are due back in court July 25 for arraignment and a detention hearing.

Jeremy Blackburn, 33, was sentenced July 18 by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle to 188 months in federal prison. Blackburn has been in custody since he pleaded guilty plea in March.

An officer with ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), Kordell Nesbitt, and two co-conspirators were arrested July 18 and 19 for their roles in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana.

A former Texas elementary school principal, Stephen Anthony Paulsen, used an online social networking application to contact and attempt to meet an individual he believed was a 15-year-old boy for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity. The individual he contacted was actually an undercover law enforcement officer, posing as a minor.

Occasionally, they serviced as many as 40 or more johns in a single day.