News Releases and Statements

A key figure in a large-scale maritime human smuggling organization and three alleged accomplices made their initial appearances in federal court here Monday to face charges after a multi-agency law enforcement operation Friday, that began with the discovery of an abandoned vessel on a San Diego County beach and culminated with the arrest...

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted 17 convicted sex offenders who failed to register with the Puerto Rico authorities after traveling to Puerto Rico from the continental United States.

Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) returned $5,400 to an 84-year-old Portland-area woman victimized by Quebec-based telemarketing con artists, who called impersonating her grandson pretending to be in desperate need of cash.

An Israeli national wanted on financial fraud charges totaling $1.9 million in his native country was deported this week by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

Hector Aleman Lemos, 31, of Flushing, N.Y., the chapter leader of a violent international street gang in New York, was arraigned Friday in federal court on a superseding indictment charging him with murder, following an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

A 54-year-old El Salvadoran national being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) passed away late Thursday evening at the Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, Ga.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday began using a federal information-sharing capability as part of the Secure Communities program in the following 15 Alabama counties: Autauga, Baldwin, Blount, Chilton, Elmore, Escambia, Etowah, Jefferson, Lee, Limestone, Marshall, Mobile, Morgan, Tallapoosa, and Tuscaloosa.

Federal agents executed two search warrants here Friday morning and arrested Gifford Chang, 44, of Honolulu in connection with an ongoing fireworks smuggling investigation tied to a deadly explosion in a storage bunker earlier this month in Waikele Gulch. The agents were with U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)...

The owner of a local dollar supermarket and two of his employees were arrested on Tuesday, after a federal grand jury indicted the three men for food-stamp fraud, and other charges.

Phillip Andro Jamison, 31, of San Diego, entered his guilty plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jan Adler. His plea is now subject to final acceptance by the federal court judge, or at the sentencing scheduled for Aug. 1. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

More than 1,300 federal and local law enforcement officers fanned out Thursday morning across the Los Angeles harbor area to arrest 80 alleged members and associates of the Rancho San Pedro gang, capping a nearly three-year investigation that linked the group to firearms and narcotics trafficking.

Vincent Lee Evans, 30, of Fort Richardson, Alaska, became the target of an ICE HSI investigation following a referral from the German police in the state of Baden-Württemberg. German investigators provided evidence that Evans was using the Internet's peer-to-peer capabilities for illicit child pornography purposes.

A convicted drug trafficker and ring leader was sentenced on Wednesday to 30 years in federal prison for possessing with intent to distribute 1,973 kilograms (4,341 pounds) of marijuana in June 2005.

Two Montana residents were sentenced on Thursday following their guilty pleas to distributing methamphetamine.

Federal agents with U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested 12 individuals today for their role in two drug smuggling operations out of U.S. airports. All of the individuals have been charged with drug trafficking and related charges to include conspiracy, possession with intent to distribute and illegal importation of narcotics.

Jon Leslie Lyons, 45, a former local high school teacher was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty in September 2010 to three counts of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography.

A local man was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to five years in federal prison for his role in a criminal enterprise involving illegal aliens working in 14 states.

Officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) have deported a Colombian national to Bogota after being jailed in the U.S. for her role in providing support for a terrorist organization known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

A man wanted for torturing prisoners in Brazil in 2005 was deported on Tuesday and turned over to Brazilian authorities Wednesday morning by officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

Brendan Clery, 34, of Miami, pleaded guilty Tuesday to illegally importing about 278,256 kilograms of the ozone depleting substance hydro chlorofluorocarbon-22 (HCFC-22), following an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Criminal Investigation Division.

Melvin Sorto, 24, also known as Killer, was sentenced today to a prison term of life plus 45 years for his role in a series of crimes, including the murder of one victim and the blinding of another, committed by the MS-13 gang in the Washington, D.C. area in 2006 and 2007 following an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations.

The phone rings at 1:32 a.m. At that hour, the news can't be good. The agent on the line received a referral from a local law enforcement partner who encountered an abused and exploited individual, potentially someone who has been trafficked for sex or labor. Luckily, a victim assistance specialist is from U.S. ICE.

Angel Ayala-Vazquez and his brother Luis X. Cruz-Vazquez were found guilty Tuesday of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute narcotics within Puerto Rico and from Puerto Rico to several eastern seaboard states, following a joint investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)...

Today at ICE headquarters, ICE Director John Morton and CBP Assistant Commissioner Thomas S. Winkowski repatriated 99 pre-Columbian artifacts seized as a result of operations by ICE's HSI and CBP in Los Angeles and Portland, Ore., to Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli.

Manuel Garcia-Martinez, a/k/a Daniel Garcia-Martinez, a/k/a Marco Hernandez , 35, of Graniteville, S.C., and Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, pled guilty Monday in federal court in Columbia, to illegal re-entry into the United States after deportation.