News Releases and Statements

A man from El Salvador, who was wanted for murder in his home country, was deported and turned over to El Salvador officials on Jan. 6 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers.

A Las Vegas woman was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison for importing more than $2 million of cocaine with the intent to distribute it in the United States.

Fifty individuals were charged in an indictment unsealed today in Puerto Rico with conspiracy to commit identification fraud in connection with their alleged roles in a scheme to traffic the identities of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens and corresponding identity documents.

Simon Jasper McCarty, 39, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright. McCarty admitted that between 2005 and 2007, he molested three different prepubescent boys outside of the United States and produced videos of the molestation.

An Atlanta man pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute 53 kilograms (117 pounds) of cocaine, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson, Southern District of Texas.

Jonathan Binns of Shenandoah, Pa., admitted that he took sexually explicit photographs and videos of two minor children in 2010, uploaded the child pornography to a computer and maintained the images on a thumb drive.

Gary Samuel Cochran, 53, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson under a plea agreement reached last year. Cochran pleaded guilty in September 2011 to one count of production of child pornography, a charge that carries a mandatory minimum of 25 years in federal prison.

A Mexican man was sentenced on Monday to 24 years and four months in federal prison for holding for ransom the aliens he had violently hijacked from other alien smugglers. This sentenced was announced by U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson, Southern District of Texas.

Fernando Garcia was indicted on Aug. 24 with distributing images and videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. On Jan. 27, 2011, an ICE HSI agent, acting in an undercover capacity, downloaded several images of child pornography and traced them back to an account belonging to Garcia.

Bryan Ross Spears, 39, of Palm Coast, Fla., pleaded guilty on Sept. 15 to receiving child pornography over the Internet. After the sentencing hearing, Spears was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service to await designation to a federal prison.

A cook at an area fast-food restaurant remains in federal custody after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents arrested him Dec. 27 for illegally re-entering the country after being deported.

Mark Porter of Bethany, Conn. waived his right to indictment and has pleaded guilty to one count of accessing child pornography. The guilty plea is the result of an investigation conducted by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. Probation Office for the District of Connecticut.

Nicholas Brown, 24, was indicted for possessing child pornography on Aug. 24, 2011. On Monday, Brown stipulated that he possessed more than 100 videos of child pornography.

A man who attempted to board a flight from Orlando to London with 800 grams of cocaine in his digestive track was sentenced Monday to 24 months in federal prison for possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute.

Theft of American intellectual property is a serious crime, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and ICE announced today that their vigorous, ongoing efforts to protect America from the trade in counterfeit and pirated goods during fiscal year (FY) 2011 resulted in 24,792 seizures, a 24 percent increase over 2010.

Phillip Beyel, 27, of Cocoa Beach, Fla., allegedly had sexual intercourse with a child for a period of several months, while that child was 12 and 13 years old. During that time, Beyel used a cell phone to take videos of himself engaging in those sexual acts with the minor victim. He was arrested on Jan. 2 on state charges for lewd and lascivious conduct.

A federal judge in Alabama issued a forfeiture order for a Douglas AD-4N Skyraider aircraft after an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) determined that it had been smuggled into the United States illegally.

Scott Allan Herrick, 40, of Twin Lakes, Mich., surreptitiously videotaped boys as they were dressing in the boys' locker room in the YMCA in Muskegon, Mich., where Herrick was a swim instructor. He also kept a massive collection of 100,000 images of child pornography with him at the Gerber Boy Scouts Camp in Twin Lakes.

Deme Nikqi, of Peje, Kosovo, known by various aliases including 'Hektor Kelmendi,' has been extradited to the United States from Albania to face charges related to his leadership of an international human smuggling network.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers deported a man wanted in Mexico for possessing a firearm and jumping bail Thursday.

A Mexican national involved in the shooting death of a 2-year-old relative was arrested and charged on a federal criminal complaint Friday with possession of a firearm by an illegal alien.

Joshua Gardner, 29, admitted that sometime between September 1997 and May 2002, he sexually abused two boys under the age of 12 on Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. Kadena is a U.S. Air Force base under the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. At the time of the offenses, Gardner also resided in Okinawa.

Spanish authorities believe Abdel Roca Teijelo used an ax to kill his employer and constructed a sarcophagus to hide the body.

A federal grand jury returned two indictments this week charging 16 Dallas-area residents with running a methamphetamine-distribution conspiracy, linked to the La Familia Drug Cartel, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldana of the Northern District of Texas and Special Agent in Charge James Capra of the DEA in Dallas.