News Releases and Statements

A man from Mexico, who was the leader of a local sex trafficking ring that tricked and forced young girls into prostitution, was sentenced Thursday to serve 40 years in federal prison for sex trafficking minors, and various other related criminal convictions.

Law enforcement located Buddy Anderson, 39, and his wife, Sharon Lee Anderson, 38, early this month at a homeless shelter in Las Vegas where they had absconded to after leaving their apartment in Ennis in February. They were arrested on related state charges and returned to Ennis.

Kenneth Robert McVicker III, 46, entered a not-guilty plea, and was detained pending trial on May 24 before U.S. District Judge James A. Redden. ICE HSI agents took custody of McVicker Wednesday in the Central American country of Belize.

Eric Wayne Tindall, 51, originally came to the attention of ICE HSI in the summer of 2010 while agents investigated a commercial child pornography website. Tindall later responded to a fake advertisement created by law enforcement agents, which offered to sell child pornography movies.

Kevin Weiner, 42, was arrested March 23 and charged in a criminal complaint with attempting to sexually coerce and entice a minor by computer. The complaint alleges that Weiner placed a craigslist ad entitled "Older looking to suck younger." Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) officers responded to the ad and scheduled a face-to-face meeting with Weiner.

Donald Means has been in custody since his arrest in November 2009 on a related federal criminal complaint. He is a registered sex offender, having been convicted in the Eastern District of Texas in December 2002 on one count each of possessing and receiving child pornography.

"Four family members from Bogota, Columbia, were indicted on Wednesday by a federal grand jury on various counts of illegally attempting to export 22 F-5 jet fighter engines to Iran. According to the complaint affidavit, Iran produces an aircraft named ""Saegeh,"" which is compatible with F-5 fighter engines."

Following an enforcement surge by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), Virginia State Police, and U.S. Marshals Service along with 10 local law enforcement agencies, ICE arrested 131 foreign nationals with criminal records and eight fugitives in the Northern Virginia area.

A federal grand jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., returned a two-count indictment against three Chinese nationals for trafficking in counterfeit goods and conspiracy, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

A U.S. Army Reserve soldier, who was assigned as an assistant to a U.S. Army chaplain, was arrested Monday on child pornography charges.

A Brazilian national, who is wanted for a 1991 murder, was deported on Tuesday by local officers with U.S. ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). Joao de Oliveira, 51, was charged in January 1997 for the murder of Absolon Ferreira de Souza. On April 15, 1991, De Oliveira and the victim had an altercation outside a bar...

Frank L. Burdick, 51, was sentenced to 135 months in prison on March 22 by U.S. District Court Judge John D. Rainey. Burdick's prison time will be followed by a 10-year-term of supervised release, with a number of special conditions designed to protect children and prohibit the use of the Internet.

U.S. ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) agents on Wednesday deported a Mexican national who is suspected of raping a 6-year-old girl, who later died as a result, in Mexico in 1997. He was escorted to the border and handed over to Mexican federal officials to face these charges after he evaded Mexican courts for more than 14 years.

A local woman was sentenced Tuesday to a year in prison for transporting, harboring and hiring illegal aliens to work at the Chinese restaurant she managed. Between January 2009 and August 2010, Hua Huang was manager of the China Buffet/Mongolian Grill in Poplar Bluff. During that time she regularly employed several illegal aliens from Mexico...

Evidence introduced at sentencing showed that on April 29, 2010, Michael Alan Reaid, 28, of Tallahassee, was found possessing about 24,000 images of child pornography, including sadistic and masochistic images, and depictions of sex acts with children as young as 2 years old.

A Bosnian national woman in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) passed away Sunday night at McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden, Utah, of an apparent heart attack.

According to court documents, Roland J. Flath, 71, of Lamartine, Wis., allegedly traveled to Belize in July 2006 and sexually molested a local girl.

"A Canadian man who attempted to smuggle potent ""B.C. Bud"" marijuana into a remote area of Washington's Olympic Peninsula was sentenced Monday to 30 months in federal prison, following an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).Engine trouble prevented the men from fleeing back to Canada after being seen by a USBP agent."

A 21-year-old man was arrested Saturday for producing and possessing child porn, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD).

The leader of a human smuggling organization with ties to the Avenues street gang was sentenced Monday to 25 years in federal prison, one of the longest prison terms ever imposed locally in an alien smuggling case.

A Bahamian national, who fled to the United States to avoid a prison sentence on a murder charge in his native country, was turned over to Bahamian authorities Wednesday by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

A senior attorney with U.S. ICE was sentenced to 212 months in federal prison following a multi-agency investigation that revealed he took nearly $500,000 in bribes from immigrants who were promised immigration benefits that would allow them to remain in the United States.

A South African national, who is wanted in his home country for fraud and forgery, was deported on Friday and turned over to South African law enforcement officials by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers.

In addition, U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings ordered that John Alan Conroy, 37, who has been in custody since his July 2010 arrest on a related charge, serve a lifetime of supervised release following his imprisonment.

Devon Samuels, 45, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer of Stockbridge, Ga., pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to conspiring to launder drug money and attempting to smuggle guns onto an airplane.