News Releases and Statements

Michael Brandan Griffith was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison Aug. 7 by U.S. District Judge Marcia Crone. Griffith had pleaded guilty April 9 to possessing material involving the sexual exploitation of children.

Alejandro Flores, 40, was repatriated to La Paz, Bolivia, Aug. 6 via commercial aircraft, and accompanied by two ERO enforcement officers.

Yester Ayala, 22, aka Freeway and Daddy Yankee, of Washington; Noe Machado-Erazo, 30 aka Gallo of Wheaton, Md.; and Jose Martinez-Amaya, 26, aka Crimen of Brentwood, Md., were each found guilty in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.

The 11-count indictment, was unsealed Aug. 6 upon the arrest of Jamal Khattab, 49, of Katy, and Fayez Al-Jabri, 45, of Chicago, Ill. Khattab will appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Johnson in Houston Wednesday.

KNPA senior delegates traveled to Washington and met with HSI officials at ICE's headquarters to sign the document.

Larry James Kerfoot must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

In April, Albert Silva Hernandez, Jr., 44, of Las Vegas, was convicted of eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Clark County School District.

The company is also a contract supplier for ICE personnel service weapons and the first New Hampshire company to become an IMAGE partner.

Billymir Mancilla-Brevichet, 28, of Oakland, Calif., was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison, followed by 4 years of supervised release, and ordered to forfeit $278,618. Co-conspirators Chamron Thach, 30, of Silver Spring, Md., and Carlos Salvador Escobar, 30, of Arlington, Va., were sentenced to 8 years and 3 years, respectively.

The photos are believed to have been taken sometime in April 2013.

Billy Wayne Johnson, 55, of Scurry, Texas, has been in custody since his arrest in February 2013 on a related federal criminal complaint. This sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

Lelis Rodriguez, a Honduran national who has been in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since July 22, passed away Wednesday, July 31, at Valley Baptist Medical Center (VBMC) in Harlingen, Texas from a cerebral hemorrhage.

On May 1, the FBI, through another investigation, received information that Ramos was living in Harrisonburg and contacted the ERO Washington Field Office.

John W. Vandermeer, 62, of Albuquerque, was arrested Dec. 4, 2012 on a criminal complaint alleging he received and possessed child pornography in Bernalillo County, N.M., between January 2011 and November 2012.

ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents, working jointly with officers of the Puerto Rico Crimes Against Children Task Force (PRCACTF), arrested two individuals on child exploitation charges Tuesday in the municipalities of Arroyo and Mayaguez.

Evelyn Sineneng-Smith, 66, was indicted by a federal grand jury July 14, 2010.

Between December 2011 and July 2012, Robert Marzola sexually abused a minor male at his home, and he produced images of himself and the minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Marzola saved the images on his laptop and told the boy not to tell anyone about their conduct, which Marzola described to the boy as a game.

Marcus Gabriel Henderson, 33, is charged with production and attempted production of child pornography, involving the defendant's secretly videotaping female victims in the bathrooms of his home.

Following her arrest by HSI special agents in December 2012, Ruiz admitted to charging clients for legal services while posing as an immigration attorney. Ruiz promised to get the clients work permits and driver's licenses and other immigration benefits.

Christopher Blackford, 28, of Charleston, S.C., was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison Monday before U.S. District Court Judge S. Maurice Hicks in the Western District of Louisiana. William Davis, 39, of Bristol, N.H., was sentenced to more than 17 years in federal prison in addition to a lifetime of supervised release.

Matthew Andrew Carter, 68, formerly of Brighton, Mich., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard of the Southern District of Florida. On Feb. 28, a jury found Carter guilty of five counts of traveling from the US to Haiti to engage in illicit sexual conduct with children and one count of attempting to do so.

Freddy Centeno, a licensed real estate agent, helped a narcotics trafficker launder drug profits through the purchase of properties in Brownsville.

The jury returned its verdicts July 30 following a seven-day trial and more than five hours of deliberation.

Under the terms of the contract, the components were required to be made in the United States.

The offenses carry a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.