News Releases and Statements

The two defendants, Alfonso Rodriguez-Vazquez and Nestor Fabian Sinaloa-Sinaloa, were first charged by criminal complaint Aug. 8, 2015. They were then indicted by a federal grand jury Sept. 28.

Juan Ramon Gonzalez-Hernandez, 22, was flown to El Salvador March 18 and turned over to Salvadoran officials.

The investigation that the television series sought to feature focused on Owens’ work in putting an end to a juvenile sex trafficking ring in Denton, Texas. As part of the HSI-led North Texas Trafficking Task Force, Owens led the efforts to arrest and prosecute two adults who had prostituted 14-year-old “Hope” to more than 30 men across five states over a three-week period.

Thongchay Saengsiri, 65, was transferred from the LaSalle Detention Facility via ambulance to the hospital March 17, after experiencing shortness of breath.

Shannon Buck, 43, from Irving, Texas, admitted that he used Jane Doe to engage in sexually explicit conduct, and then used his camera to record that conduct.

Jose Carlos Granado-Melgar, 29, was flown to El Salvador March 17 onboard a charter flight coordinated by ICE’s Air Operations (IAO) Unit. Upon arrival, Granado-Melgar was turned over to officials from El Salvador’s Policia Nacional Civil (PNC).

Daniel Benson Billman Jr., 43, of Aransas Pass, was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack to 600 months in federal prison. Billman was further ordered to serve the rest of his life on supervised release, during which time he will have to comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the Internet.

All 15 arrested have been convicted of crimes in the United States and fall within ICE’s enforcement priorities for deportation. They have been convicted of the following crimes: aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a minor, aggravated unlawful use of a firearm, aggravated drunk driving, aggravated battery/great bodily harm, lewd and lascivious behavior in public, and drug possession.

The 54th annual program was held in Washington, D.C., from March 5 – 12. Two student leaders from each state, the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Activity spent a week in Washington experiencing their government in action.

Amir Abbas Tamimi, 44, was repatriated on board a commercial flight escorted by Philadelphia-based ERO officers. After arriving at Imam Khomeini International Airport, ERO officers transferred Tamimi to the custody of Iranian law enforcement.

According to court documents, Thomas E. Lafontaine, 35, responded to a personal ad placed by an HSI special agent in late 2014, who was posing as a 14-year-old girl.

Koren Robert Kechedzian, 24, of Studio City, was convicted by a federal jury March 11 of two counts of credit card fraud (specifically, two counts of possession of 15 or more counterfeit access devices) and two counts of aggravated identity theft.

Mohamad Saeed Kodaimati, 25, a naturalized U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty in October 2015 to one count of false statements related to international terrorism. As part of his guilty plea, Kodaimati acknowledged that he lied in March 2015 when he said he did not know any members of Islamic State in Iraq, a designated foreign terrorist organization known as ISIL.

Yusef Yunosovich Abramov, 58, was convicted by a jury in November 2015 of five felony counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places. According to evidence introduced during the trial, the dual Russian-U.S. citizen flew from Los Angeles to Russia in June 2009 and, shortly after arriving, raped a 12-year-old girl.

According to plea documents filed in the case, Hao Tran, 37, of Grand Prairie, Texas, purchased a $150,000 cashier’s check using profits from his illegal drug trafficking business which he operated between California and Texas.

This seizure contained a 2nd Century Bodhisattva schist head from the Gandhara region (likely from what is now known today as Swat Valley, Pakistan,) and is estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The seizure comes just days before a planned March 15, 2016 auction of the items as part of the "Asia Week New York" festivities. Christie's had included the two artifacts in an auction entitled: "The Lahiri Collection: Indian and Himalayan Art, Ancient and Modern."

Marcos Antonio Rodriguez-Mejia, aka, Brady Rodriguez-Cruz, 33, of Irving, Texas, was sentenced to 293 months in federal prison on one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children, and also sentenced to 120 months for one count of possessing counterfeit documents. Both sentences are to be served concurrently.

All of those arrested by ICE during last week’s enforcement action met one of the agency’s top two enforcement priorities. All encountered had criminal records, some were felony convictions for serious or violent offenses, such as manslaughter, child abuse, robbery, false imprisonment, felony DUI, hit and run, armed burglary, racketeering, as well as weapons and drug violations.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published amended regulations on optional practical training (OPT) for certain international students with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degrees from U.S. institutions of higher education.

Jesus Hernandez-Ramos, 33, was sentenced March 11 by Senior U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack to 86 months in federal prison and a lifetime of supervised release.

Robert Wayne Collins, 63, of Kingsville, Texas, was sentenced March 10 to 84 months in prison. Collins was further ordered to pay a $17,500 fine, five years of supervised release, and compliance with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the Internet.

On June, 16, the Manassas City Police Department arrested David Alexander Battle II, 24, after law enforcement executed a search warrant at his residence and discovered evidence of child pornography, including two gigabytes of videos that appeared to be child pornography involving infants.

ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) were on the scene within moments of the attack, assisting local authorities and the FBI at the incident command post.