News Releases and Statements

Two Mexican nationals were sentenced Monday to 10 and seven years in jail respectively for harboring illegal aliens for profit and aiding and abetting and transporting illegal aliens for profit, following an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) offices in Washington, D.C., and Phoenix.

A citizen of the Dominican Republic was sentenced Friday to 200 months in prison for his participation in a drug trafficking operation. A case initiated in 2006 revealed the organization used corrupt longshoremen to smuggle more than 150 kilograms of cocaine from Ecuador into the United States through New York.

Timothy Weirich, a Boy Scout den leader from Arlington, Texas, was arrested Thursday on a federal child pornography charge. While the investigation is ongoing, at this time ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) notes that it is unaware of any child molestation.

Kent Oman of Des Moines, Iowa, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Oman admitted that between Jan. 31, 2009 and Nov. 7, 2010, he knowingly and intentionally used a hidden camera to produce videos of a minor male using a bathroom on 15 to 20 separate occasions.

The investigation began when the Beaumont Police Department, using peer-2-peer software, discovered an IP address registered to Donald Wayne Waters, 44, of Winnie, Texas, sharing images and videos of child pornography.

More than 70 countries participated in the pilot program, which took place from Nov. 1, 2010 to April 30, 2011.

As part of his plea agreement, Thomas Leroy Griffin, Jr., 32, 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 (SORNA).

Michael S. Starowicz, 39, faces a statutory maximum statutory sentence of not less than five years or more than 20 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine per count. Starowicz, who remains in custody, could also be sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release. Sentencing is set for March 2 before Judge McBryde.

The Lowell Housing Authority has signed the state's first-ever agreement between a local housing authority and ICE to strengthen hiring practices and to combat the unlawful employment of illegal aliens.

The criminal enterprise, known as the Gulf Cartel, was headquartered in Matamoros, Mexico, and allegedly imports, warehouses, transports and distributes tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States.

Johnathon Caudill responded to a posting by an undercover Fort Worth Police officer on Dallas' Craigslist advertising his girlfriend's minor daughters. Caudill informed the undercover officer that he wanted the girls to wear diapers during sessions of deviant sexual intercourse. After his arrest, condoms, diapers and a $100 bill were in his car.

"A Texas Mexican Mafia gang member, Valdomero ""Oso"" Hernandez, was sentenced on Thursday to 25 years in federal prison for conspiracy to conduct the affairs of racketeering. An investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) revealed that members of the EME were responsible for numerous violent acts..."

Gary Mack Johnson, who pleaded guilty in April to one count of transporting and shipping child pornography, was sentenced Thursday to 210 months in federal prison. Law enforcement investigations showed Johnson had chatted online about molesting children dating back to 2004, and had distributed child pornography on the Web using several methods.

Dustin Anthony Axelrod, 27, of Salisbury, Md., was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr., who ordered that upon his release from prison, Axelrod 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 (SORNA).

Four people have been sentenced for their involvement in a cocaine trafficking and money laundering conspiracy. These drugs were transported from Brownsville, Texas, to Atlanta and Dallas. Millions of dollars in drug proceeds received from those northern points were smuggled into Mexico.

Fu-Tain Lu, a onetime Cupertino, Calif. exporter, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to selling sensitive microwave amplifiers to the People's Republic of China without a license.

Antonio Antwon Andolini of Sioux Falls, S.D. pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to stealing identities to pass bad checks and to obtain false driver's licenses, welfare benefits, housing assistance, and credit cards.

Federal criminal charges have been filed against eight individuals suspected of running a Southern California-based alien smuggling organization that used cell phones to guide clients across the U.S.-Mexico border.

According to court records and evidence at trial, she first entered the United States in March 1992 under a false name and travel documents.

A clerk at the Honolulu Driver's License Department and a local driving instructor have been indicted on federal fraud charges stemming from a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) into allegations they sold legitimate Hawaii driver's licenses to illegal aliens.

Robert Diduca, 47 was convicted Thursday of production, distribution and possession of child pornography in a case investigated cooperatively with ICE's HSI.

Jeremy Hogenkamp, 35, is charged with two counts of distributing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. A federal grand jury returned the indictments Nov. 16.

Twenty-five members and associates of Los Vagos, a Mexican transnational gang, were arrested on outstanding New York City arrest warrants, immigration violations and federal charges including murder conspiracy, assault, firearms offenses and narcotics trafficking. These charges stem from an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations...

"Israel Cruz Millan a/k/a ""El Muerto,"" the leader of a highly sophisticated and violent interstate fraudulent document trafficking organization based in Mexico, pleaded guilty on Tuesday for his role in the operation. The plea comes as a result of a nearly two-year long investigation conducted by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)."