News Releases and Statements

HSI announced Wednesday, the seizure of more than 169,000 counterfeit sports-related items over the past year, worth an estimated $45 million. This announcement was made during a joint press conference in Tampa with the National Football League (NFL), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Tampa Police Department (TPD).

The complaint alleges a scheme involving multiple entities affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the IRGC-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) to covertly ship Iranian oil to a customer abroad. Participants in the scheme attempted to disguise the origin of the oil using ship-to-ship transfers, falsified documents and other means, and provided a fraudulent bill of lading to deceive the owners of the Achilleas into loading the oil in question.

Derek Wallace Johnson, 41, pleaded guilty Sept. 23, 2020 to the distribution of child pornography and receipt of child pornography.

William Adam Jonathan Smith, 31, was found guilty by a federal jury. He was convicted of one count of Conspiracy to Commit Sex Trafficking of a Minor and one count of Sex Trafficking of a Minor.

On Feb. 2, 2021, Benito Lopez III, 53, from Los Ebanos appeared before U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez who sentenced him to 82 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.

According to court documents, Ramiro Ramirez-Barreto, 44, from the Mexican State of Morelos, operated a continuing criminal enterprise with ties to Virginia, North Carolina, Texas and California. Ramirez-Barreto was linked to the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico, as were his drug sources.

Felipe Montes was pronounced dead at 12:31 a.m. (EDT) by medical professionals. Montes was admitted into the hospital from the Stewart Detention Center on Jan. 10, two weeks after his arrival into ICE custody on Dec. 28.

An investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Dallas and the North Texas Trafficking Task Force led to the arrest of a 33-year-old Dallas man for human trafficking.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) will join federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to provide essential public safety efforts in and around the Tampa Bay area for Super Bowl LV. HSI personnel will be on the front lines of the interagency effort to mitigate the threat posed by criminal organizations seeking to exploit and profit from criminal activity through the identification and seizure of counterfeit goods and enhanced efforts to combat human trafficking.

An indictment was unsealed this week charging Cheng Bo, also known as Joe Cheng, a 45-year-old national of the People’s Republic of China, with participating in a criminal conspiracy from 2012-2015 to violate U.S. export laws by shipping U.S. power amplifiers to China, the result of a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles, the FBI and the Department of Commerce.

In a two-count information, Hugo Sergio Mejia, 49, of Ontario, was charged with money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. In a plea agreement also filed today, Mejia agreed to plead guilty to these federal felony offenses in in March.

Cameron Michael Pittman, 34, a resident of Orange Grove, Texas, pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography in the Southern District of Texas Sept. 9.

ICE today announced an extension of the flexibilities in rules related to Form I-9 compliance that was granted earlier this year. Due to the continued precautions related to COVID-19, DHS will extend this policy until March 31, 2021.

Louis Broadway-Phillips, 27, pleaded guilty to Illegal Control of an Enterprise, Attempt to Commit Sex Trafficking of a Minor, Sex Trafficking, Tampering with a Witness and Influencing a Witness.

An investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) resulted in the arrest of a 25-year-old Australian citizen who is now facing a total of 247 charges related to 245 alleged child victims in the United States.

As the result of a probe by ICE's HSI Los Angeles, Daniel Seibert, 29, of Lake Forest, pleaded guilty in March 2020 to a three-count information charging him with production of child pornography, traveling to engage in illicit sex and using a facility of commerce to induce a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Jose Wilmer Montano, aka Jose Wilmer Matamoros-Montano, 28, and an illegal alien fugitive, was removed from the United States on a charter flight coordinated by ICE's Air Operations Unit and turned over to law enforcement officials in El Salvador Jan. 15.

ERO Los Angeles officers arrested Oscar Daniel Munoz-Valdez, 40, a citizen of Mexico, in Pomona, and Pedro Antonio Hernandez-Aparicio, 35, a citizen of El Salvador, in El Monte, and served them with notices to appear before an immigration judge for immigration violations.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Orlando seized 284 counterfeit “sports championship rings” from “Friendly Confines Collectibles,” a sports memorabilia store located in Oviedo, Florida, Jan. 14, 2021. The HSI investigation was supported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Anthony Martinez, 40, of La Habra, pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. 

Daniel Alfonso Lemus, 43, was convicted of first-degree child molestation and fugitive charges in 2015 and sentenced to a term of 41 months to life. He was later transferred to the custody of the Washington Department of Corrections to serve his sentence.

Emrah Gocekli, aka Vandoff Shawn Thomas, 33, is a citizen of Turkey who became the subject of a criminal arrest warrant, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, following his 2018 violation for escaping from federal immigration custody.

Zahra Badri, 39, of Houston, who is originally from the United Kingdom, is charged in an indictment with knowingly transporting a minor from the United States in foreign commerce for the purpose of FGM from about July 10, 2016 through Oct. 14, 2016.

Earlier today, an indictment was unsealed in Central Islip, New York charging 14 of the world’s highest-ranking MS-13 leaders who are known today as the Ranfla Nacional, which operated as the organization’s Board of Directors, and directed MS-13’s violence and criminal activity around the world for almost two decades.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) announced on Wednesday the fiscal year (FY) 2020 immigration statistics for the Houston Field Office. ERO Houston is responsible for overseeing an area of responsibility (AOR) that includes 54 counties stretching from the East Texas border along the Louisiana state line from Shelby County down to Brooks and Kennedy counties.