News Releases and Statements

This was a joint operation between HSI and the Peruvian National Police (PNP), with an NGO that assists human trafficking victims.

On Feb. 14, District Judge Randy Crane sentenced Jairo Esnid Pina-Carrillo, 32, of Mexico to 70 months in prison. In handing down the sentence, the court noted Pina-Carrillo appeared to be a trusted member of the drug trafficking organization based on the number of times he admitted to smuggling narcotics and the amount and type of the narcotics. Pina-Carrillo pleaded guilty Dec. 2, 2021.

An investigation by ICE HSI led to the arrest and charge of Joseph Raymond Berger, 67, and Joseph Paul Berger, 32, of Bethlehem, PA, this week with multiple firearms offenses including possessing machine guns, possessing non-registered firearms, and possessing non-registered silencers.

Today, the IPR Center, the NFL, CBP, the Los Angeles Sheriff Department and ICE HSI announced that more than 267, 511 counterfeit sports-related items, worth an estimated $97.8 million, were seized during Operation Team Player.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, on July 15, 2021, Maria Guadalupe Rivas Camacho, 38, was found in possession of over 633 kilograms of liquid methamphetamine, which was stored in a house in San Elizario, Texas.

Juan Ruperto Perez-Avila, 52, wanted in Mexico for aggravated rape of a child, entered the U.S. without inspection April of 2012, near El Paso, Texas and was returned to Mexico via the San Ysidro Port of Entry, California.

Jordan Daniel Kraft, 22, of Fargo, was sentenced before U.S. District Court Chief Judge Peter D. Welte to 134 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery.

Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, both of New York, New York, were scheduled to make their initial appearances in federal court today at 3:00 p.m. in Manhattan.

By embedding MPA and ACE personnel to the team at the IPR Center in Washington D.C. and other resources to the expanded framework, the partnering organizations are able to further expand their collective content protection efforts.

This case was initiated from a Jan 2021 event where 19 foreign nationals were murdered in a human smuggling event in Tamaulipas, Mexico, in attempt to reach the United States. Sixteen of those killed were Guatemalan nationals. Seizures included both foreign and US currency at approximately $203,000 USD, five vehicles, sixty-one illegal gambling machines, one firearm, ammunition, and various electronic devices.

Benjamin Gallegos, 24, of Nogales, Arizona, admitted to conspiring to transport and harbor noncitizens for profit. Specifically, Gallegos managed, organized and coordinated other co-conspirators to drive, provide guide services, and operate stash houses for undocumented persons seeking to be smuggled into the United States.

The HRVWCC including the DOJ's HRSP, ICE, and the FBI’s IHRU join U.S. and international law enforcement partners, NGO and others this Sunday in recognizing the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation on Feb. 6.

HSI is working with local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to provide essential public safety measures in and around the Los Angeles area. Measures include, but are not limited to, investigating human trafficking and intellectual property rights violations. The goal is to help address criminal threats the public, the National Football League, and the city of Inglewood may face leading up to and throughout Super Bowl LVI week, between Feb. 6-13.

Special agents with ICE's HSI partnered with multiple state and federal law enforcement agencies under the FBI’s SAVCGTF to executed 11 search warrants throughout Pima and Santa Cruz counties, in connection with an ongoing investigation against a violent criminal street gang in Tucson.

Timothy Caylor, 49, pleaded guilty to production of child pornography in September 2021. According to his plea agreement, after receiving a complaint of a couple whose daughter had received inappropriate text and voice messages from Caylor, law enforcement went to his mother’s residence, where he was staying.

The YACMP will be managed through ICE’s Juvenile and Family Management Unit and is designed to assist young adults who age out of Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) custody, are released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or ICE custody, or who are currently reporting to ICE's non-detained docket. This program will not include GPS or other monitoring technology.

Carlos Horacio Suarez Monroy, a 38-year-old Guatemalan national, was arrested by ERO’s Boston Fugitive Operations South Team near his residence in Winthrop, Massachusetts, Jan. 20.

Francisco Cuxum Alvarado, 66, was convicted of crimes against humanity by a High-Risk Court in Guatemala City, Guatemala and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment.

According to court documents, Jose Alejandro Crecencio, 21, was parked in a Chevy Tahoe at the Big Bend National Park Visitor’s Center when a U.S. Border Patrol agent attempted to make contact with him. Crecencio sped away from the area and a short time later, six individuals were observed by the Border Patrol agent and a park ranger exiting the stopped Tahoe and absconding into the nearby brush.

According to documents filed in court and witness testimony, from November 2017 through February 2020, Timothy Chad Canady (Canady), 43, currently of Knoxville, possessed child sexual abuse material and transported it in interstate commerce using social media websites to communicate with others to trade links.

On Jan. 28, noncitizen Salvadoran nationals Oscar Melkin Moreno Romero, 28, and Hernan Quintanilla Herrera, 44, were flown from Alexandria, Louisiana, to the Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport in San Salvador, El Salvador, on a charter flight coordinated by ICE’s Air Operations Unit. Upon arrival, both fugitives were turned over to officials from El Salvador’s Civilian National Police (PNC).

Fabian Alcaraz-Santillan, 25, from Sioux City, Iowa, was sentenced on Jan. 31. 2022 to 123 months in federal prison following an ICE HSI, joint law enforcement partner investigation.

In Fiscal Year 2021, ICE’s HSI arrested 2,360 individuals in connection with human trafficking. From those cases, more than 720 trafficking victims were identified and offered critical assistance.

HSI SAC Katherine Greer and United States Attorney Jan Sharp announced that Chad Carlson, 44, of Axtell, Nebraska, was sentenced on Jan. 27, 2022, by United States District Judge John M. Gerrard to 15 years and 8 months in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine following an ICE HSI, joint partner, investigation.

Reuben Rankin, 36, of Cleveland, Ohio, was convicted of assaulting a federal agent with a deadly weapon, discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, sex trafficking of a minor, production of child pornography and being a felon in possession of a firearm.