News Releases and Statements

A defense attorney for notorious Puerto Rican drug lord Jose D. Figueroa-Agosto and a legal broker were arrested Tuesday on money laundering charges by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents. Negron-Colon and Barreto-Ortiz allegedly attempted to nullify Figueroa-Agosto's 208-year sentence by making illegal payments.

If convicted of the charges, Kirk A. Simmons faces a possible life sentence in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Investigators found 219 images and 46 movie files of child pornography on Scott Allen Johnson's seized laptop computer. The ages of the child victims ranged from 2 to 12 years old, and their images depicted various and extreme scenes of sexual intercourse.

HSI special agents initiated an investigation into allegations the two brothers were harboring illegal aliens who worked at their two restaurants.

Harold Duane Davenport admitted that he possessed more than 600 images of child pornography, including images and videos portraying sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence.

Inocente Orlando Montano, 71, was sentenced to 21 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release and a special assessment of $600 by U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock. Montano previously agreed to be deported from the United States upon completion of his prison term.

Daniel Allen Jr., 23, of Voorhees, N.J., pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting the manufacture of child pornography, distributing child pornography and endangering the welfare of a child. He faces up to seven years in prison.

Jeffrey Dale Wiederholt was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to 70 years in federal prison for producing and possessing more than a thousand images of child pornography. Wiederholt sexually abused a child under the age of 12 on numerous occasions over the course of about seven months in order to produce child pornography.

Kil Jun Lee was sentenced Monday to 30 months in federal prison for smuggling nearly 40,000 counterfeit erectile dysfunction pills that were discovered in a golf bag and other luggage when he entered the United States at Los Angeles International Airport last year.

Mateo Perez Hernandez, a Mexican national who fled to the United States to avoid prosecution for the bludgeoning death of a Mexicali, Mexico, man in September 2010, was turned over to Mexican authorities Monday following his recent capture in the Los Angeles area by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Curtis Caylor, of Albuquerque, was arrested Dec. 20, 2012 based on an indictment charging him with three counts of receiving child pornography, and two counts of possessing child pornography.

Patrick Cau, aka Patrick Kaiser, a German national who used to work for United Airlines, pleaded guilty Monday to making false bomb threats against flights operated by the international air carrier.

HSI special agents and partner law enforcement officers targeted 23 retailers of counterfeit and pirated goods at the Arecibo flea market.

ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents arrested Georgia Bowen, a/k/a Georgia Bennett, a Jamaican citizen residing in Lackawanna, on Thursday for health care fraud, identity theft and unauthorized use of social security numbers.

Matthew Bren Goodlett was caught with more than 3,500 images and 150 videos of child exploitation.

Thomas Gard, of Nederland, Texas, was charged along with Phillip Taylor Hallmark, of Winnie, Texas, in relation to transporting at least 42 illegal aliens to cleanup an oil spill in Kalamazoo, Mich., in August 2010.

During a forensic examination of James R. Wiese's computer equipment, HSI special agents found more than 3,800 images and 1,150 videos depicting child pornography. The images and videos involved prepubescent children.

HSI received a referral from the Puerto Rico Police Department that Hector J. Cruz-Velazquez transported a 15-year-old female to his residence in Caguas to engage in illicit sexual conduct with the minor. HSI special agents subsequently arrested Cruz-Velazquez.

Federal agents arrested Patrick Campbell Wednesday for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by attempting to broker the sale of yellowcake uranium to Iran. Campbell brought a sample of uranium with him to the United States Aug. 21, which he concealed in the soles of shoes packed in his luggage.

U.S. and Mexican government agencies came together to host a human trafficking training conference for judges, prosecutors, forensic specialists, psychologists and researchers Aug. 19 to 23 in Guadalajara.

Herbert J. Townsend and George Johnson received federal prison sentences Thursday for their roles in an extensive drug trafficking ring that distributed more than three kilograms of methamphetamine in Mississippi from 2006 until 2012.

Michael E. Ontiveros and Jorge Muhedano-Hernandez were indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in separate and unrelated indictments that charge the defendants in the Central District of Illinois with child pornography offenses.

Mehdi Khorramshahgol conspired with others in Iran to purchase industrial goods from United States businesses for the Iranian petrochemical industry. The defendant falsely represented that the end users for his purchases were in Dubai.

Nicolas Perret posed online as a 15-year-old boy to entice teens into performing sexually explicit activities on webcams. More than 100 videos featuring suspected underage girls on webcams in sexually exploitative situations were recovered on Perret's laptop.