News Releases and Statements

The trainings, which took place between June 17-21 and June 24-28, 2019, were designed to help participating law enforcement officers, agents, prosecutors, and judges understand the crimes of sex trafficking/forced labor and child exploitation/sexual child abuse and how to work these types of cases. The ICE HSI delegations not only provided insight into each crime, but also discussed the challenges they face when investigating and prosecuting human trafficking and child exploitation cases in the United States.

This surge initiative in the Bay Area is in furtherance of an HSI-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) strategy for targeting the importation, smuggling, and trafficking of counterfeit goods. The goal of this operation is to identify and interdict counterfeit products entering the US at International Mail Facilities and Express Consignment Hubs, and then for HSI field offices to initiate investigations to disrupt and dismantle those organizations involved in these criminal acts.

Kari Scattaglia, 40, of Sylmar, and another former DMV employee co-defendant Lisa Terraciano, 52, of North Hollywood, pleaded guilty, Nov. 3, 2017, to a conspiracy to commit bribery, to commit identity fraud, and to commit unauthorized access of a computer.

Cortez-Moreno, 30, is wanted by the Salvadoran government for multiple egregious crimes, including charges of manslaughter, murder and other crimes with ties to 18th Street Gang activity.

Mario Herrera, 55, from Michoacán, Mexico, and formerly of Chicago, was a member of a Mexico-based conspiracy that laundered more than $100 million in narcotics proceeds on behalf of the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa drug cartels.

James Keegan, 57, of Cicero, Illinois, fraudulently offered immigration advocacy services, including guaranteed U.S. permanent resident status, in exchange for a fluctuating fee that averaged $3,000 per applicant.

Consistent with the agency’s protocols, the appropriate agencies have been notified about the death, including the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, and the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility.

On Thursday, July 18, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Yuma special agents arrested Alejandro Escobar-Rivera, 51, and seized 221.22 lbs. of methamphetamine and 5.0 lbs. of cocaine with a combined approximate street value of nearly $4.1 million, as well as multiple cell phones, in a targeted enforcement action led by HSI.

On May 16, 2018, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, 48, was sentenced to 32 months in prison for his participation in a scheme to violate U.S. economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran involving billions of dollars in Iranian oil proceeds held at Atilla’s employer (“Turkish Bank-1”).

The National Bulk Cash Smuggling Center (BCSC) was recognized for its efforts in identifying and combatting transnational criminal organizations’ (TCO) use of illicit value, including bulk cash, stored value and cryptocurrency.

Jorge Rodriguez-Saldana, 30, was driving a vehicle that struck a grandmother and her two grandchildren, killing the seven-year-old child and critically injuring the grandmother.

Elizabeth Dawn Evans, 28, of Rigby, Idaho, was sentenced last Friday in U.S. District Court to 15 years in prison for possessing sexually explicit images of minors.

Katrina (Katie) Lynn Danforth, 32, of Post Falls, Idaho, pled guilty this week to two counts of use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder for hire.

ICE's ERO removed Martha Valencia-Gutierrez, 50, a Spanish national, wanted in her home country on narcotics trafficking charges.

The indictment alleges that between on-or-about May 2018 and November 2018, the organization distributed cocaine, crack, heroin, and marijuana, all within the real property comprising the Villa Evangelina Public Housing Project located in the Municipality of Manatí.

Geovani Hernandez, 45, a former South Texas police officer from Weslaco, Texas, was sentenced on Thursday to 20 years in federal prison following his cocaine-trafficking conviction in March.

Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, known by various aliases, including “El Chapo” and “El Rapido,” was sentenced today by United States District Judge Brian M. Cogan to life imprisonment plus 30 years to run consecutive to the life sentence for being a principal leader of a continuing criminal enterprise – the Mexican organized crime syndicate known as the Sinaloa Cartel – a charge that includes 26 drug-related violations and one murder conspiracy. The Court also ordered Guzman Loera to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture.

Pursuant to an investigation by ICE’s HSI New York, Hema Patel, 51, a Texas-based bail bondswoman, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for her role in smuggling hundreds of illegal aliens into the United States.

The weeklong operation, which concluded yesterday, was conducted throughout San Diego county by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Diego.

A five-count superseding indictment was unsealed Friday in federal court in Brooklyn charging R&B singer “R. Kelly” with racketeering predicated on criminal conduct including sexual exploitation of children, kidnapping, forced labor and Mann Act violations involving the coercion and transportation of women and girls in interstate commerce to engage in illegal sexual activity.