News Releases and Statements

A truck driver pleaded guilty here Thursday to drug smuggling charges after admitting he smuggled tons of marijuana through a sophisticated 600-yard underground cross-border passageway discovered two months ago by federal agents on the San Diego Tunnel Task Force.

The third of three convicted for his part in an alien smuggling organization which resulted in the dehydration death of a Mexican national in Brooks County in 2009 was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in federal prison.

Paul Gary Pinkston, 27, of Glen Burnie, Md., was sentenced to 20 months in prison, followed by 15 years of supervised release, for possession of child pornography. On May 4, 2009, special agents with ICE HSI executed a search warrant at Pinkston's residence, after an investigation showed that he subscribed to a fee-based child pornography website.

Waheed Islam, also known as "Walter Missouri, Jr.," 43, of Manchester, Conn., pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny in Hartford, Conn., to one count of possession of body armor by a violent felon.

A joint federal-state law enforcement operation Wednesday morning led to the arrest of 27 people linked to a Los Angeles-area street gang known as Lennox 13, some of whom are named in a federal racketeering indictment that alleges the gang is a criminal enterprise that has engaged in violent crimes, extortion and narcotics trafficking.

On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began using a federal information sharing capability in Athens County that helps federal immigration officials use biometrics to identify aliens, both lawfully and unlawfully present in the United States, who are booked into local law enforcement's custody for a crime.

David Balgobin, a former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contracting officer was sentenced to six months in prison on Jan. 18 for awarding three Department of Homeland Security (DHS) contracts to companies he controlled.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers removed Branko Popic, who served in the army of the breakaway Republic of Srpska during the July 1995 Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The garbage truck driver in a July 2008 fatal collision with a bicyclist in Washington, D.C., was sentenced to 31 months in prison for illegally re-entering the United States after being removed because he was convicted of an aggravated felony.

A Mexican national in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since Jan. 6 passed away on Jan. 13 at Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center as a result of natural causes.

Following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the painting Leda ed il Cigno, by Italian Renaissance painter Lelio Orsi, was ordered forfeited to the government as property brought into the United States in violation of customs laws.

Six individuals who live in the High Point/Thomasville area in North Carolina were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents on Friday on charges that they were involved in an alleged conspiracy to steal baby formula from retail stores in several southern states.

Rafael Luis Mieles, 25, of Baltimore, pleaded guilty today to distributing child pornography in connection with an online ad he posted seeking to have sex with a father and son.

A federal grand jury indicted Naveed Sheikh, 30, of Baltimore, late yesterday afternoon for illegally reproducing and distributing over 100 copyrighted commercial software programs.

Gustavo G. Olvera, 37, was arrested on Jan. 6 on charges of child enticement and receiving child pornography outlined in a federal criminal complaint. A federal grand jury in Fort Worth indicted Olvera Jan. 12 for those offenses.

The money is the result of a settlement of IFCO's corporate criminal liability for conduct associated with the hiring and employment of illegal alien workers at its pallet plants prior to April 19, 2006. The forfeiture resulted from an extensive investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

William Ortiz Lazaro, 31, of Hyattsville, Md., was sentenced to 135 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for the armed robbery of two stores.

Marc Knapp, 35, of Simi Valley, Calif., pleaded guilty today to engaging in a seven-month course of criminal conduct involving illegal exports to Hungary and attempted exports to the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia. This guilty plea resulted from an investigation conducted by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Since its activation in Sacramento County a year ago, the biometric information-sharing capability deployed as part of the Secure Communities initiative has resulted in the identification and removal of more than 460 convicted criminal aliens from the United States who were encountered by local law enforcement in Sacramento County.

Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) assigned to the Rio Grande Valley Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) on Tuesday seized 15 AK 47 assault type rifles that were discovered hidden inside a pickup truck.

Alexander Steele, 47, of Philadelphia, and Christopher J. Hahn, 48, of Edgewater, N.J., pleaded guilty Jan. 13 to charges in connection with a scheme that involved bribes to driver's license examiners in exchange for fraudulent driver's licenses.

Timothy Edward Dawson, 44, of Port Saint Lucie, Fla., was sentenced to 14 years in prison following an investigation led by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). When approached by the Martin County deputies on Sept. 4, 2010, Dawson threw two weighted dive bags overboard from the vessel he was operating. When divers recovered them...

Jamie Hall, 37, a tech sergeant stationed at Dover Air Force Base, was sentenced to 72 months in prison for receipt of child pornography, in violation of federal law. Hall also was sentenced to 5 years of supervised release, which will commence following his prison term. He also will be required to register as a sex offender in any jurisdiction...

Two male Canadian nationals are in custody facing state drug charges after agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations and local police executed a search warrant at a warehouse here Wednesday night and found more than 103 pounds of cocaine and approximately $2.4M in cash inside a locked safe.

Donald Earl Marsh, 62, was sentenced Jan. 12 by Senior U.S. District Judge Hayden Head to 216 months in federal prison without parole, to be followed by a lifetime term of supervised release, a $25,000 fine and registering as a sex offender for the rest of his life.