News Releases and Statements

Following a two-day trial, a federal jury in Fort Worth convicted Michael Webb, 51, of kidnapping after less than 10 minutes of deliberation.

According to the 16-count indictment, Diego Ernesto Castaneda-Garcia was allegedly the leader of a drug trafficking organization that received imported heroin from Mexico, repackaged it into user quantities and sold it to heroin users in and around Central Ohio.

The purpose of Operation Na-Palm was to target the illegal harvest of Saw Palmetto Berries, specifically on Point Washington Wildlife Management Area, Deer Lake, Grayton, and Topsail Hill State Parks, as well as any private lands where written landowner permission is not granted.

Four men were sentenced in Wyoming this summer to extensive prison sentences after pleading guilty to various child pornography charges.

According to the complaint, an individual using the screen name “thehoff727” distributed child pornography on Snapchat, a mobile web-based communications application. Further investigation revealed that the Internet Protocol (IP) address and subscriber information associated with that account was linked to the residence of Matthew Enhoffer, 34, of St. Petersburg, a police officer with the St. Petersburg Police Department.

HSI’s C3 and the Illicit Finance and Proceeds of Crime Unit provided this training, which is designed to dismantle darknet marketplaces and illicit payment networks associated with fentanyl smuggling and their distribution organizations.

Mu Sigma – a large, advanced analytics service provider headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with its main delivery center in Bangalore, India – was illegally circumventing U.S. government H-1B visa regulations by actively employing B1 visitor visa holders under contract within the U.S.

Dongyuan Li (李冬媛), 41, of Irvine, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud and one count of visa fraud. Li was one of 19 defendants named in a series of indictments unsealed earlier this year which resulted from an massive probe by ICE's HSI Los Angeles and IRS Criminal Investigation.

Fifteen individuals were charged in U.S. District Court today with illegal gambling, money laundering and other financial violations related to an ongoing investigation of a criminal organization operating multiple illegal game rooms and casinos on the island of Oahu.

Michael Kyle Sewell, 18, was sentenced Monday to 20 years in federal prison for conspiring to provide material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani-based foreign terrorist organization, also known as LeT.

Leopoldo Serrano Vargas – aka Leonel Serrano Vargas and Ricardo Hernandez – an illegal alien from Mexico of uncertain age (reported as both 44 and 46), was arrested Sept. 11 at his residence in Northeast Houston for illegally re-entering the United States after having been deported, which is a felony.

The HERO Corps program recruits and trains wounded, ill, or injured active-duty service members, transitioning active-duty service members and military veterans for employment to support law enforcement in the areas of child exploitation investigations, child victim identification, traveling child sex offenders, and digital forensics. This program is a one-year internship, which includes a three-month initial training followed by a nine-month hands-on training in ICE field offices nationwide.

Stephen Gibson, 46, was sentenced to two years; Carlo Sen, 26, was sentenced to three years; Louise Caswell, 39, was sentenced to 15 months and Rebekah Simons, 25, was sentenced to 21 months; they are all residents of Retford, Nottinghamshire, U.K.

ICE contacted the Mexican Consulate to inform them of Rodriguez-Espinoza’s medical status and to request assistance locating his next of kin. Mexican Consular officials subsequently advised that Rodriguez-Espinoza had no known next of kin.

Jon Anthony Terry, 30, in Rockwall, Texas, was sentenced Wednesday to 60 years in federal prison for producing and possessing child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox, Northern District of Texas.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York, with the assistance of HSI’s attaché office in London and London’s Metropolitan Police Service, kicked off the first meeting of the Virtual Global Cultural Property Task Force (VGCPTF).

Monday’s seizures are part of a larger trend the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has tracked throughout the country. The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) is reviewing an annual report on the number of IPR seizures that have raised the total estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price of the seized goods – had they been genuine – to $1.4 billion.

Local and national efforts are being made by ICE to increase the accurate information given to the community about our mission with the intent of fostering trust and better collaboration in communities across the United States.

Tiffany Rose Ramirez, 31, pleaded guilty in April to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Tremont Blakemore, 40, was charged by criminal complaint with sex trafficking through force, fraud and coercion; he made his initial appearance before Magistrate Judge Rutherford Sept. 11.

Spradlin’s primary goal in his new position is to increase public awareness of HSI and its capabilities. He also looks forward to increasing partnerships with law enforcement agencies to help keep Texas and Oklahoma residents safer.