News Releases and Statements

"On June 24, 2013, an undercover HSI special agent conducting a ""catch the predator"" operation posted an ad and received numerous responses, including some from an individual responding to the ad who ultimately identified himself as Thomas Andrew Quinton, a Canadian citizen."

Minh Thong, 30, was originally arrested at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) as he attempted to travel to Hong Kong. Thong appeared in federal court in Los Angeles (the Central District of California). A U.S. Magistrate Judge there ordered U.S. Marshals to transport Thong to Denver.

Jesus Cardenas, 23, and Luis Cardenas, 34, both of New Braunfels, Texas, were found guilty after a three-day trial for attempting to smuggle ammunition and magazines into Mexico.

Taleek Sherrod Swinney pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking on Nov. 4 for prostituting women since 2006. He started in New York City, but later trafficked women and girls for sex in multiple states along the East Coast from Connecticut to Florida, including in Virginia, Maryland and Washington.

Simona Rus will now face removal proceedings and eventual deportation to her native country of Romania.

Hector Manuel Carreon, 47, will be subject to a lifetime of supervised release upon completion of his 50-year prison term and he will be required to register as a sex offender.

Melvin Rivera-Gonzalez, a 27-year-old physical education teacher of a local school in Toa Baja, was arrested Friday for allegedly enticing, coercing and inducing one of his students, a 15-year-old female minor, into sexually criminal conduct.

Jorge Sosa, 55, of Moreno Valley, Calif., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips in the Central District of California. At sentencing, the court also revoked Sosa's U.S. citizenship.

Roberto Garcia, 29, from Pharr, Texas, was sentenced to 60 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa. Garcia was further ordered to serve a term of five years of supervised release and must register as a sex offender. He pleaded guilty to the charges Jan. 24, 2012.

Ernesto Salgado-Guzman was part of a scheme to purchase more than 400 guns in Madera, and sell them to various individuals in Oaxaca, Mexico. During the probe, 85 of the firearms were seized - 54 in Mexico and 31 in Madera.

"A joint operation between ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has led to the arrest of five Colombian nationals and prevented 60 kilograms of ""Black Ice"" methamphetamine, or ""meth,"" from entering Australia."

According to the factual resume filed in the case, in May 2010, Dwight L. Looney, 62, from Fort Worth, knowingly used, persuaded and enticed 'Jane Doe' to engage in sexually explicit conduct; Looney used a digital camera to take a still image of that conduct.

Jae Hee Yang, 58, formerly known as Jae Hee Yang Kim, must also forfeit $100,000 and perform 150 hours of community service.

Travis Humphrey, aka GT, 26, and Kyoni Humphrey, aka Kyoni Nieves, 24, allegedly conspired to force a minor female to engage in prostitution and illegal sexual activity between May 15 and June 3.

Hassan Rafiee and Idin Rafiee, both of San Diego, and Majid Nouri, of Katy, Texas, were arraigned on an indictment unsealed in district court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara L. Major. If convicted, the defendants each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Julio and Manuel Leija-Sanchez, who operated a lucrative, black-market counterfeit identification document business in Chicago's Little Village community for at least 15 years, each received the mandatory life sentence Feb. 7.

David H. Scanlan III, 38, is charged with distributing child pornography over the Internet between May and June 2011. He has surrendered his medical license.

The New York Border Enforcement Task Force (BEST), working jointly with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), seized 109 kilograms of cocaine Jan. 5 during a routine inspection of a cargo container at the New York Container Terminal in Staten Island.

Benjamin Payne was sentenced Thursday to two years and six months in federal prison following an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). He admitted possessing and storing a loaded revolver with a destroyed serial number in his car. Payne has two previous felony firearm convictions and multiple burglary convictions.

Many of the search locations were homes where drugs and guns had been stored or sold, including an apartment across the street from Hoover High School. Among the guns recovered during the probe, dubbed Crystal Palace II, were numerous assault rifles; AR-15 semi-automatic rifles; and at least two AK-47s.

James Leland Copeland was a wanted person from Tennessee for failing to register as a sex offender. Marshals Service officials determined Copeland was living in Hallettsville and had failed to register within the state of Texas.

Michael J. Carroll, a Connecticut computer technician who claimed hackers were responsible for sexually explicit images of minors linked to him, was convicted Thursday by an Alaska federal jury of advertising child pornography and two counts of distribution of child pornography.

Shortly before his death in 1768, Seekatz created the painting. In December 1879, the National Museum in Warsaw received the painting from the Warsaw School of Fine Arts. In 1909, the Warsaw museum had the painting erroneously identified and listed as "St. Phillip Baptizes the Ethiopian Eunuch" by Dutch painter J.C. Saft.

Marius Dragos Stanga, a Romanian national wanted on human trafficking and prostitution charges in his home country, was removed from the United States Tuesday by officers with ICE's Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO).

With the Department of Defense as one of their primary clients, two Tampa-based consulting companies realized the importance of protecting the security of our nation. That's why Visual Awareness Technologies and Consulting Inc. and EKS Group LLC have become the latest employers to be certified by ICE's employment compliance program called IMAGE.