News Releases and Statements

HSI received information indicating that a large amount of marijuana was being concealed inside the house on Hachar Lane. When special agents arrived at the residence they determined that the marijuana was left there for a later pickup.

The three-day operation, which concluded Sunday, was conducted by ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) as part of the agency's commitment to prioritize the removal of criminal aliens and egregious immigration violators.

Fourteen men operating a child pornography website on the Darknet's Onion Router, also known as Tor, have been arrested and charged as part of a conspiracy to operate a child exploitation enterprise, following an extensive international investigation by ICE's HSI and USPIS.

Court evidence showed that Ricardo Guerrero, 55, of Mathis, was the leader of the methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine conspiracies, which existed from 2009 through his arrest on Sept. 26, 2013.

Marisol Valdez, 27, from Eagle Pass, Texas, was sentenced March 18 to 144 months in prison for conspiracy to import heroin. The judge also ordered Valdez to serve five years of supervised release and pay a $3000.00 fine. Valdez pleaded guilty to the charge July 10, 2013.

Based on investigative clues in the photos, HSI special agents believe that this person may now live in, or had visited, north Texas at the time these photos were taken sometime in April 2013.

Charles Ray Benavidez, a former aviation ordnanceman second class, pleaded guilty in January to knowingly recruiting a 17-year-old female to engage in commercial sex acts in Kings and Tulare counties.

Victor Duane Smith, 59, initially came under law enforcement scrutiny in July 2013 when he used the Fresno County Public Library's public wireless system to view child pornography through an Internet file-sharing program.

Bassam Kiriaki, an accountant with offices located in Pawtucket, R.I., pleaded guilty Monday to participating in a conspiracy which trafficked $1.2 million in contraband cigarettes into Rhode Island from Virginia.

Iberto Morales, 31, pleaded guilty Jan. 6. According to court documents, in February 2013 Iberto possessed between 300 and 600 images showing minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Many of the images portrayed very young children engaged in sadism, masochism and violence.

A Dade City middle school teacher, David Wendel Thompson, was arrested Friday for using Facebook to attempt to knowingly persuade two minor females from Belize to engage in sexually explicit conduct.

Reza Khalilzada, an 18-year-old man who stored a machine gun, gun components, nun chucks, CS gas and a host of other weaponry at his family home, was sentenced to six years in prison Friday.

Thirteen of the defendants were taken into custody during a joint law enforcement operation Wednesday in San Francisco and Daly City.

Richard Zachary Gardner, 23, of Anderson, Ind., was sentenced March 14 to 70 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, Southern District of Indiana.

Thomas Cramer, 41, was sentenced by US District Court Frank P. Geraci, Jr. and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York.

Long Van Nguyen, 48, of University Place, pleaded guilty last September to conspiracy to kill persons in a foreign country and solicitation to commit a crime of violence. Nguyen's plot began to unravel when he was put into contact with someone he believed could help him arrange the Vietnam murders.

A total of 48 individuals, including 42 convicted criminal aliens, were taken into custody during a weeklong enforcement operation carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in San Diego this week.

Scott Wade Markle was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake. In 2005, Markle was convicted of the same crime and was required to register as a sex offender.

Rafael Cabrera-Mesa, of Reading, Pa., was sentenced March 12 to five years in prison for shipping a Remington Model 760 Gamemaster .30 06 rifle and ammunition in foreign commerce and use of false identification, following an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

On July 25, 2013, as one of the ICE ERO agents attempting to apprehend Francisco Sosa-Lopez approached him, Alisha Johnson drove her vehicle over the curb and into the agent, striking the agent on the left leg.

In 2013, all four Texas offices deported 2,124 sex offenders; 508 were convicted of sex offenses against a minor. In fiscal year 2012, Texas ERO offices deported 2,007 sex offenders, and 2,127 in 2011.

As Detroit Tigers fans prepare for the March 31 home opener, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) warned the public Thursday to beware of counterfeit merchandise and tickets.

Gang members allegedly committed murders, attempted murders, stabbings, extortion and witness tampering

Jesus Israel Perez Salgado, 38, was apprehended on a Mexican federal search warrant by PGR FEVIMTRA. HSI special agents in Mexico City obtained information about Salgado and provided it to PGR.

The investigation revealed Cubero-Soto made arrangements using his cellular telephone to pick up a minor, identified as Jane Doe, from an area near her middle school to take her to a motel in Cabo Rojo for the purpose of engaging in a commercial sex act.