News Releases and Statements

Yassin Muhiddin Aref, 38, was sentenced to 180 months imprisonment for seven counts relating to material support of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

Christopher Clay Roman-Tuttle, 33, now of Spokane, Washington, who also uses the name Christopher Clay Tuttle, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson. Once he completes the prison sentence, Tuttle will be required to register as a sex offender and will be on supervised release for the rest of his life.

Aaron Reed, 30, of Rocklin, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison today for sexual exploitation of children, receiving child pornography, and transferring obscene material to minors.

Nicholas Shreck, a 41-year-old Seattle, Washington man, was found to be in possession of images of sexual assaults of children and was sentenced to 70 months in prison and 20 years supervision.

Patrick Owusu, 42, a citizen of Ghana, will be removed once he has completed his sentence.

Authorities arrested Ivan Dario Puga-Moreno, 23, of Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, on June 6, 2019, in Houston, Texas. He made his initial appearance June 10 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dena Palermo in Houston.

John Ford, 38, who had a final order of removal to Canada, was escorted by ERO officers from El Paso to Houston International Airport, where he boarded a commercial flight, which the officers verified departed directly to Ontario, Canada.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) recently named Steve Francis as the new assistant director of the HSI-led Global Trade Investigations Division (GTID) and director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center).

Over the weekend, HSI Yuma special agents arrested Angel Leon-Camberos, 26, and seized 527.3 lbs. of methamphetamine (approximate street value of nearly $7.2 million), 14.88 lbs. of high grade marijuana and numerous wax (marijuana extract) products with an approximate street value of $103,930, one AR-15 style rifle, one magazine, packaging materials, multiple cell phones and $15,295 in cash in a targeted enforcement action lead by HSI.

Fresno HSI agents completed a two-day training for local law enforcement officers, analysts, and prosecutors, Wednesday, June 6. During this event, participants received the latest information about federal human trafficking investigations and about proven law enforcement best practices to implement.

Arrests occurred in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Of those arrested, 22 were convicted criminals, 10 had criminal charges pending, 27 had been issued a final order of removal and failed to depart the United States, and 2 had been previously removed from the United States.

Jeremy James Cherry, has a 2001 King County Superior Court conviction for rape of a child and attempted possession of child pornography.

Starlin Alfredo Martinez-Morales, 24, from Honduras was originally charged by criminal complaint May 10, 2019.  On June 5, a federal grand jury returned the two-count indictment. He will soon appear for his arraignment before a U.S. magistrate judge.

U.S. District Court Judge Laurie Smith Camp sentenced Sebastian Velasquez-Ramos, 47, to 28 months in federal prison following his criminal convictions for fraudulently using a Social Security card, falsely claiming U.S. citizenship, and aggravated identity theft. Velasquez-Ramos previously pleaded guilty to the charges.

Leonard Bernard Lewis, 33, of Seattle, pleaded guilty in February 2019, admitting that he transported images of child rape and abuse on his personal electronic devices when he traveled from Seattle to London on March 1, 2018.

Eddy Steven Sandoval Lopez, 23, a Nicaraguan national residing in Sacramento, pleaded guilty, Monday, June 3, to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.

Three of the MS-13 gang members, all Salvadoran nationals, were arrested on murder charges: Francisco Flores-Salazar, 19, Mario Guevara-Flores, 26, and Francisco Alberto Ancheta-Aquino, 21.

Naasón Joaquín García (Joaquín García) and his co-defendants allegedly committed these crimes between 2015 and 2018 while leading La Luz Del Mundo, an international religious organization headquartered in Mexico with reportedly more than one million followers worldwide.

Jorge Gonzalez-Ramirez, 27, Guatemala, and Joel Sanchez-Guzman, 25, Mexico, both pleaded guilty to their criminal charges June 4.

On Jan. 2, the Attorney General’s Office in Sonora, Mexico, issued a warrant against Rodrigo Castillo Alvarez (a.k.a. Oscar Castillo or Alfonso Castillo Delgado) for the offenses of sexual abuse or rape of a child and child molestation. According to Mexican police records, Alvarez was alleged to be one of two predators who violated a female under the age of 12.

Jerry Zweitzig, 71, the former pastor of Horsham Bible Church on Upland Avenue in Horsham, faces a maximum possible sentence of 170 years imprisonment, a minimum mandatory term of 15 years, 5 years of supervised release, and a $1,500,000 fine.