News Releases and Statements

Joshua Babilonia, 23, of Fair Lawn, appeared Thursday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph A. Dickson in Newark federal court and was released on a $50,000 bond.

Forty-three individuals were arrested Tuesday for bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and drug trafficking.

Harold Michael Nicol's computers and storage media were forensically examined and revealed that Nicol possessed more than 400 images of child pornography.

DGA Director Juan Fernando Fernandez hosted the Sept. 26 signing ceremony and U.S. Charge d' Affairs to the Dominican Republic Daniel L. Foote also attended.

The last two of 23 men and women accused in a Savannah-based sex trafficking organization pleaded guilty Tuesday. Joaquin Mendez-Hernandez, the leader of the organization which operated in Savannah, other parts of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Mexico, pleaded guilty Sept. 17.

Camilo Torres-Martinez pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of conspiracy to traffic more than five kilograms of cocaine while onboard a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, including importing, manufacturing and possessing the drug with intent to distribute.

Two Idaho Falls methamphetamine dealers pleaded guilty Wednesday to drug charges stemming from an investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), including ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of the Chief Information Officer has been nominated for the prestigious (ISC)2 Government Information Security Leadership Award for Community Awareness.

According to U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr., the scheme targeted elderly citizens throughout the United States, including two seniors living in western New York.

Lee Baca, of Albuquerque, was charged June 26 in a sealed 5-count indictment charging him with 3 counts of receiving, and 2 counts of possessing child pornography.

Robert Arthur Brewster, in an online conversation with an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl, admitted that he took sexually explicit pictures of a minor child under the age of 12 with whom he had access.

Michael J. Rolfe of Gates, N.Y., took a child who was less than 12 years old on a trip from Rochester to locations in Texas in August 2012 while he was employed as a long distance truck driver. Rolfe engaged in sexual acts with the child while traveling outside of New York.

According to court documents, on Nov. 10, Jason G. Aman, 30, used an Internet chat room to initiate contact with an undercover agent who he believed to be a 14-year-old girl.

3 former leaders of a New Jersey branch of the violent international street gang La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, were charged Wednesday with racketeering and murder.

A pilot program designed to train military veterans to help investigators conduct criminal investigations into child pornography and online child sexual exploitation was announced today in Washington by the multi-agency team that established the project.

Emeterio Velazquez, a Mexican national who was living in Beloit, Wis. was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in federal prison for distributing cocaine.

Two Montana men were sentenced Tuesday to 10 years and three years in federal prison following their guilty pleas to distributing methamphetamine.

Saddle River Valley Bank agreed Tuesday to pay an $8.2 million penalty and a number of related regulatory actions to settle claims that it violated anti-money laundering laws.

Mohammad Jamal Rashid, 45, a U.S. permanent resident, was indicted Sept. 12. The sealed indictment was unsealed Sept. 24 after his arrest by HSI special agents.

Two women pleaded guilty Monday to charges resulting from their roles in a large-scale identity-theft scheme.

Michelle Laducer, 38, of Rolla, N.D., pleaded guilty June 17 to two counts of sexually exploiting a minor.

A former San Diego middle school teacher, Timothy James Hensley, was sentenced Monday to 70 months in federal prison on child pornography charges, following a probe by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Amjad Israr, a Pakistani citizen unlawfully residing in Cheshire, Conn., was sentenced Friday to 15 months in prison for conspiring to bribe an immigration official in order to obtain lawful permanent residence and employment authorization documents.

Richard Creech used a peer-to-peer file sharing program to collect and share child pornography videos, including numerous videos of children between 5 and 12 years old being raped and sexually abused.

Samuel Joseph Gueydan, A Fresno-area man who was found to have more than 900,000 images of child pornography on his computer, was sentenced Monday to nine years in prison, following a probe by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Clovis Police Department.