News Releases and Statements

A clerk at the Honolulu Driver's License Department and a local driving instructor have been indicted on federal fraud charges stemming from a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) into allegations they sold legitimate Hawaii driver's licenses to illegal aliens.

Robert Diduca, 47 was convicted Thursday of production, distribution and possession of child pornography in a case investigated cooperatively with ICE's HSI.

Jeremy Hogenkamp, 35, is charged with two counts of distributing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. A federal grand jury returned the indictments Nov. 16.

Twenty-five members and associates of Los Vagos, a Mexican transnational gang, were arrested on outstanding New York City arrest warrants, immigration violations and federal charges including murder conspiracy, assault, firearms offenses and narcotics trafficking. These charges stem from an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations...

"Israel Cruz Millan a/k/a ""El Muerto,"" the leader of a highly sophisticated and violent interstate fraudulent document trafficking organization based in Mexico, pleaded guilty on Tuesday for his role in the operation. The plea comes as a result of a nearly two-year long investigation conducted by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)."

Three Mexican citizens were sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday for conspiring to force Mexican women to engage in prostitution, following an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The defendants pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge in August.

A Maryland man pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to transport child pornography in connection with his role as a lead administrator of an online child pornography bulletin board.

A former lawful permanent resident, who was once an enlisted member of the U.S. Navy, was deported Wednesday to Panama. He had killed two people during a 1977 hostage standoff at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. The man was escorted from Buffalo, N.Y., to Panama by officers with ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

Twenty defendants face federal narcotics charges following a joint investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The following agencies also assisted with the investigation: ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Division...

The U.S. entrance to the tunnel was concealed beneath the front porch of a home located approximately one-half mile west of the DeConcini Port of Entry.

Investigators on the multi-agency San Diego Tunnel Task Force continued sifting through evidence Wednesday at a warehouse in Otay Mesa's industrial park housing the U.S. entrance to a sophisticated passageway that runs beneath the border to a warehouse more than 400 yards away in Tijuana, Mexico.

Rogelio Serrano-Lara from Matamoros, Mexico, was sentenced on Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison for his role in an alien smuggling/transportation conspiracy. His sentence was increased after witnesses testified that he robbed them and raped a woman. The case was investigated by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

A Kearny, N.J., woman who posed as a government official was sentenced Tuesday to 87 months in prison for orchestrating a scheme to defraud dozens of immigrants out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by pretending she could help them become United States citizens.

A 30-year-old Hempstead, Texas, resident and former student at Prairie View A and M University, was convicted Nov. 14 for attempting to provide material support to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Sagarsen Haldar aka Gopal Hari Das, a religious leader from India who founded a local Hindu temple, was found guilty of fraudulently obtaining and then selling religious worker visas to Indian nationals. The guilty verdict stems from an investigation conducted by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents working jointly with Puerto Rico Police Department's (PRPD) seized 225 kilograms of cocaine Tuesday from a residence in Humacao on the eastern coast of Puerto Rico with an estimated street value of $4.5 million.

An upstate New York man, Christopher Morin, was sentenced to 188 months in prison for attempting to sexually entice a minor. The sentence is the result of an investigation conducted by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Morin exchanged more than 1,000 text messages with an undercover agent posing as a 15-year-old girl.

Morales Davila had his initial appearance before Magistrate Judge Camille Rive Tuesday and was transferred to the Guaynabo, Puerto Rico Metropolitan Detention Center awaiting the outcome of his case.

Christmas came early this year for Kyle Cox, a terminally ill teenager from El Paso, Texas who has always dreamed of becoming a law enforcement agent. On Nov. 3, agents from the ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office in El Paso made that wish come true.

In or about August 2010, Lisandro Ortiz-Ramos, of San Juan, induced a female minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct, including the lascivious exhibition of the genital areas, for the production of still images using a digital camera and computer which had been mailed, shipped, or transported in interstate foreign commerce.

"ICE mourns the loss of Secretary Francisco Blake Mora and our Mexican law enforcement colleagues who passed away in this tragic helicopter crash."

Saidou A. Dia, 46, of St. Louis, was sentenced Nov. 10 in the Eastern District of Missouri by U.S. District Judge Jean C. Hamilton. Dia pleaded guilty in August to one felony count of copyright infringement and one felony count of failure to register as a sex offender.

Louis E. Gray, 40, has been in custody since his July 6 arrest when law enforcement executed a search warrant at his Fort Worth residence.

The Harrison County Sheriff's Department was recognized by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with the Partnership for Public Safety Award for 2011. Under Sheriff Melvin Brisolara, the department has provided dedicated manpower and assistance to the ICE HSI Gulf Coast Border Enforcement Security Task Force.

Seven defendants have been indicted on federal criminal charges for their alleged role in a central California firearms trafficking ring suspected of smuggling several hundred guns to Mexico over a three-year period.