News Releases and Statements

Determined to curb the escalating number of children falling prey to sexual predators online, representatives from federal and local law enforcement, along with a leading children's advocacy organization, announced Tuesday the launch of Project iGuardian, a first-of-its-kind national cyber safety campaign.

The number of IPR seizures increased nearly 7 percent from 22,848 in FY 2012 to 24,361 in FY 2013.

A 57-year-old Philadelphia man, Dave Brister, pleaded guilty March 24 to all counts stemming from a counterfeit check scheme that victimized dozens of people across the United States through a series of Internet-based sales scams.

Joel Mazariegos-Soto, 29, the upstate New York-based leader of the organization, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton to 60 months in federal prison. His accomplice, Walfre David Perez-Jovel, 34, was sentenced to 46 months in prison.

A group of 10 community leaders graduated Saturday in San Juan from the first U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)-sponsored citizens academy.

Neng Yang, 46, of Clovis, who previously taught in the Clovis Unified School District, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Ning Guo, a member of a massive, international conspiracy responsible for importing counterfeit goods from China worth a retail value of $300 million, was sentenced Friday to more than three years in federal prison.

Another leader of the 'Felony Lane Gang' conspiracy, Jarrett Hobbs, was sentenced March 24 to 132 months in prison.

A federal jury Monday convicted Susan Xiao-Ping Su, the founder and former president of Tri-Valley University, of multiple federal criminal counts, including wire fraud, visa fraud, and money laundering, for her role in a large-scale visa fraud scheme involving foreign students.

Baltazar Torres-Castorena, a Mexican man wanted in his native country for rape, was deported Thursday by officers with ICE's Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO).

Dale Wray Fulford, of Slaton, Texas, faces a statutory penalty of not less than 15 years or more than 30 years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine. Judge Cummings ordered a presentence investigation report with a sentencing date to be set after that report is completed.

A group of 24 Mexican Customs officers completed a rigorous 10-week training program Friday modeled on ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Training Program to prepare them to more effectively fight crime along the southern border and within Mexico.

Three alleged members of an international cybercrime, money laundering and identity theft conspiracy were indicted on federal charges Monday for using information hacked from customer accounts at more than a dozen banks, brokerage firms, payroll processing companies and government agencies in an attempt to steal at least $15 million from Americans.

Less than a week before the start of his trial last summer, Christian James Gieseke, 39, from Garland, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography.

Abraham DeLuna-Esparza, a convicted felon who was previously deported to Mexico as an aggravated felon, was sentenced Friday to 6 1/2 years in federal prison for illegally re-entering the United States and drug possession.

U.S. authorities are investigating a drug smuggling incident in the Laguna Mountains east of San Diego early Friday morning involving an ultralight aircraft carrying approximately 250 pounds of marijuana that crashed into a dead oak tree.

"Recently ICE unveiled a temporary exhibit at the Crime Museum in Washington, D.C. entitled ""Securing the Homeland - ICE."" Part of this exhibit includes artifacts from 9/11 in a display dedicated to that pivotal moment in history for both the nation and ICE."

Following his 17-year prison sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Raymond P. Moore also ordered James Boblett, 34, of Grand Junction, Colo., to serve 10 years on supervised release. The defendant appeared at the sentencing hearing in custody, and was remanded at its conclusion.

A federal jury convicted Jean Claude Roy, aka Dredd the Don and Dreddy, March 19 of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, three counts of interstate transportation for prostitution, and witness and evidence tampering.

Robert Mucha, 58, of Newton, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William H. Walls in Newark to one count of enticing a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity and one count of receiving child pornography. Judge Walls imposed the sentence Wednesday in federal court.

Jason Lee Villasana, 37, of Del Rio, Texas, was sentenced to 180 months imprisonment for receiving and distributing child pornography, and possessing an unregistered firearm. The judge also ordered Villasana to serve a 10-year term of supervised release. Villasana pleaded guilty to the charges Aug. 21, 2013.

Travis J. Russ, 32, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was sentenced Tuesday for his leadership role in a car break-in and bank fraud crew that stole more than a million dollars in the five years it was in operation.

While on a routine patrol in the Caribbean Sea March 16, the crew of a Coast Guard maritime patrol aircraft detected a 25-foot go-fast vessel with two outboard engines and two subjects onboard traveling northwest without navigation lights approximately 115 nautical miles southeast of Vieques.

Nazmul Maksud Murad, 43, is accused of participating in a 1989 grenade attack at the home of Sheikh Hasina, who was the head of a rival political party at that time. Hasina is currently the prime minister of Bangladesh.