News Releases and Statements

Two key figures in a large-scale narcotics smuggling and money laundering scheme have been sentenced to federal prison, following a long-term investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Bryan McCarthy, 32, of Deer Park, Texas, was taken into custody at his home and is charged with one count of criminal infringement of a copyright. He was the operator of channelsurfing.net, which was seized by federal authorities on Feb. 1, 2011, as part of an ongoing HSI investigation into websites that illegally streamed copyrighted sporting telecasts and pay-per-view events.

True identity discovered when his employer submitted proposal for construction work on a Department of Homeland Security facility in Orlando

Jack Zimmerman, a 57-year-old man from Irving Texas, was sentenced on Thursday to 30 years in federal prison for one count of enticing a minor and one count of producing child pornography. Zimmerman admitted that he used a cell phone to persuade, induce and entice a 14-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity with him inside his van.

Twenty-five members and associates of the MS-13 street gang were charged Thursday in a 70-count, superseding indictment in the Eastern District of New York as part of an ongoing investigation by federal and state law enforcement agencies into criminal gang activity in three New York counties.

"Michael Uszakow, also known as ""iced,"" 46, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a fine of 2,000 dollars for his involvement in a software piracy conspiracy. The sentence is the result of an investigation conducted by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)."

"A total of six defendants charged in two separate and unrelated cases have been sentenced to prison this week for transporting illegal aliens in the ""air dams"" of tractor trailers. The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and U.S. Border Patrol (BP)."

Frediberto Pineda, whose true birth name is Samuel Hernandez-Pimental, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Columbia, for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine and more than 50 grams of crack cocaine and illegal re-entry after deportation. The case was investigated by agents from U.S. ICE...

Two men who investigators believe were operating a marijuana grow house in a rural part of Sullivan County, N.Y., were arrested Wednesday, following an investigation by the New York Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force.

Steven Neal Greenoe, 37, pled guilty Wednesday in federal court to exporting firearms from the United States without a license and traveling in foreign commerce to deal in firearms without a license, following an international investigation into illegal firearms trafficking and smuggling by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)...

A sealed indictment charging seven Brownsville-area residents with conspiring to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and/or laundering the drug proceeds was unsealed on Wednesday following the arrest of the defendants.

Robert William Hull, of Nampa, Idaho, pleaded guilty in federal court here Tuesday. Court documents reveal that during November 2010, detectives with the Saskatoon Police Service in Saskatchewan, Canada, conducted an Internet child exploitation investigation involving a Saskatchewan suspect.

An Arizona business owner was sentenced on Wednesday for his part in a scheme to ship sensitive technology items to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions imposed on that country under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

Read ICE Director John Morton's memo on priorities for the apprehension, detention and removal of aliens.

Special agents with U. S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) on Monday returned 14,600 dollars to an elderly victim of telemarketing con artists operating from Canada. The money was returned Feb. 28 to an 89-year-old Chicago woman following a multi-agency investigation under a joint U.S.-Canada initiative called Project COLT.

Joseph Acevedo-Maldonado, 48, of Utuado, Puerto Rico, was sentenced on Feb. 20 to 25 years in prison for production of videos involving minors engaging in sexual acts produced with the assistance of his wife, Jennise Lopez-Correa. The sentence resulted from an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) announced today the arrests of 678 gang members and associates from 133 different gangs during Project Southern Tempest, an intensive ICE HSI-led law enforcement operation executed in 168 U.S. cities targeting gangs affiliated with drug trafficking organizations.

A federal grand jury indicted 13 people Tuesday in two related cash-for-food-stamp benefit fraud cases involving a total of more than a $580,000 in food stamps. The indictments resulted from an investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Office of Inspector General, with assistance from U.S. ICE's Homeland Security...

Thomas Neal, 41, of Roseville, Calif., pleaded guilty to possessing and receiving visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In entering his guilty plea, Neal admitted that in February 2010, he possessed a computer hard drive and several computer disks containing more than 800 still images and more than 200 videos, each of which showed minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Ranferi Osorio, 27, and his brother, Otilio Osorio, 22, were arrested Feb. 28 at their home on East Colonial Drive in Lancaster, Texas. Each Osorio brother is charged with possessing firearms with an obliterated serial number. An additional defendant, Kelvin Leon Morrison, 25, who is charged in a separate federal criminal complaint, was arrested at his home next door to the Osorio brothers.

Steven Demink, 41, of Redford, Mich., was indicted by a federal grand jury in November on 13 counts related to the sexual exploitation of children, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced.

U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus, sentenced Brahim Lajqi, 51, an ethnic Albanian from Kosovo, residing in Silver Spring, Md., today to five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for visa fraud.

Douglas Lee Ebersbach, 51, was charged in a three-count indictment filed Oct. 25, 2010. After a three-day trial, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on all three counts of the indictment.

Daniel James Broussard, 22, of Tulsa, Okla., former assistant manager of the Grand Theater in Lafayette, was sentenced today in federal court to 40 years in prison and lifetime of supervised release for using a facility in interstate commerce attempting to coerce a minor to engage in criminal sexual acts.

Two men, who were charged separately in related cases, were sentenced to federal prison on Monday for their involvement in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine and launder the drug proceeds.