News Releases and Statements

Three separate criminal complaints were unsealed Tuesday in federal court charging defendants Richard Arline, Jr., Donnell Russell and Michael Williams, respectively, with crimes relating to their efforts to harass, intimidate, threaten or corruptly influence individuals named as alleged victims in the racketeering case against Kelly, currently pending in the Eastern District of New York (the Kelly case).

Concepcion Malinek, 50, pleaded guilty to one count of labor trafficking. The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.

Rene Camacho, a 47-year-old U.S. citizen residing in Houston, was sentenced July 23 in the Southern District of Texas to three years in federal prison to be immediately followed by two years of supervised release for conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens.

Mexican citizen Ivan Dario Puga-Moreno, 31, was sentenced July 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy to transport unlawfully present aliens into the United States causing death or serious bodily injury.

According to the indictment, beginning by at least some date in 2016, Edward Alan Hardin, 33, of Pomona Park, began soliciting a child victim to engage in commercial sex acts, knowing that the victim was younger than 18 years old.

On June 6, 2019, Berrios-Trinidad arranged to bring two underage females to a hotel for a "sex party" with adult men. On that evening, he arrived with two girls, ages 14 and 17. Once inside the hotel room, Berrios-Trinidad was arrested, and the victims were rescued.

The website CityXGuide.com – a leading source of online advertisements for prostitution and sex trafficking that users described as "taking over from where Backpage left off" – has been seized and its owner charged in a 28-count federal indictment.

Leonidas Navarro, 30, from Zapata, Texas, entered a guilty plea June 8, before U.S. District Court Judge Diana Saldana for conspiracy to transport illegal aliens within the country.

The three defendants were arrested last month after being named in a criminal complaint that alleged a conspiracy to commit immigration fraud. Today’s indictment expands the scope of the alleged scheme and includes new details about the immigration fraud portion of the scheme.

Johnson Ortiz, 23, and Regina Ramon, 29, previously pleaded guilty on Sept. 4, 2019, to their involvement in harboring illegal aliens for profit, with Ortiz also pleading to a statutory endangerment enhancement.

Mayra Chaver, 32, of Honduras, pleaded guilty to assisting an illegal alien to evade arrest. The three others charged in relation to the crime – Mexican citizens Agustin Gutierrez-Gonzalez, 33, and Ivan Dario Puga-Moreno, 30; and Elena Ruiz, 35, of Corpus Christi – had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport illegal aliens into the United States causing death or serious bodily injury. Gutierrez-Gonzalez and Puga-Moreno were both illegally present in the United States, and pleaded guilty to illegal reentry.

HSI Orlando special agents also worked with the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation organized crime section on human trafficking enforcement activities and outreach, as part of January’s Human Trafficking Awareness Month.

ICE's HSI Little Rock and Jonesboro special agents arrested 13 people and rescued three victims following an underage sex trafficking operation in Northeast Arkansas Jan. 30, 2020.

Darnell Deshawn Stennis, 28, will be arraigned one count of sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion, and two counts of transporting individuals to engage in prostitution, before U.S. Magistrate Becky R Thorson in St. Paul on Feb. 6. 

The sentencing came as a result of an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami office and the Federal Bureau of Investigations. U.S. District Kathleen M. Williams prosecuted the case against Tomas Vale Valdivia, 45.

Joel Sanchez-Guzman, 46, pleaded guilty to the charges, June 4, 2019. He was also ordered to forfeit $1,300.

Roberto Ramirez, 23, of Tucson, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jennifer G. Zipps after previously pleading guilty August 8, 2019, to one count of transportation of illegal aliens for profit placing in jeopardy of life, three separate counts of assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon, and one count of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

Brenda Yadira Gamez-Castaneda, aka Guera La Trailera, 41, of Mexico was sentenced Jan. 22 before U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez to 120 months for her role in a conspiracy to transport illegal aliens. Gamez-Castaneda is illegally present in the United States and has previously been deported. She also received 24 months for illegally reentering the U.S.

As part of the month-long awareness campaign, HSI Atlanta is speaking in several high-profile events around the southeast. Events include: conducting presentations at the 5th annual Tapestri Human Trafficking Forum in Atlanta, the 5th annual Traffick Jam event in Savannah, and the United States Attorney’s Office Human Trafficking taskforce meeting in Birmingham, Alabama.

This month offers a unique opportunity to build on existing momentum to eliminate this crime and ensure all people are treated with dignity and respect. Throughout January, law enforcement works with communities across the nation to promote the work being done to prevent human trafficking and support those who have fallen victim to these crimes.

This outreach campaign was part of January’s Human Trafficking Awareness Month and began in 2019.

Andrew Lamar Blake, 45, of Phoenix, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Marquez after previously pleading guilty Oct. 16, 2019, to conspiracy to transport illegal aliens for profit where aliens’ lives were placed in jeopardy which resulted a death.