News Releases and Statements

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Eduardo Escobar, along with other personnel from HSI Colombia, will be featured in part 3 of the documentary series Chain of Command airing Jan. 19 on National Geographic Channel.

Paul Carter, 47, of Milwaukee, was sentenced Wednesday to 21 years in prison, reduced by three years for time served.  On Oct. 6, 2017, he pleaded guilty to four counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, and one count of conspiracy to commit forced labor and sex trafficking.

Jesus Osorio, 43, from Laredo, was sentenced Jan. 10 by U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo to 87 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.

An Indiana man was sentenced in federal court Thursday to more than five years in prison for hiring a pimp to transport a minor across state lines for prostitution. An Indiana man was sentenced in federal court Thursday to more than five years in prison for hiring a pimp to transport a minor across state lines for prostitution. 

Olga Patricia Reyes, 30, from Laredo residing in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and Leslie Chavira, 25, also from Laredo, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Guillermo R. Garcia Dec. 28. Both women were charged with transporting four unaccompanied minor children who are all citizens of Mexico.

Court documents allege that Roberto Ramirez, 21, of Tucson, arrived at the Border Patrol checkpoint on I-19 near Amado, Dec. 24, while transporting two suspected illegal aliens.

Sean Price, 39, met the Australian teen online and encouraged her to join him in New York.  The superseding indictment charged him with interstate and foreign enticement to engage in sexual activity, interstate and foreign transportation of a minor to engage in sexual activity, a Mann Act violation, and attempted sexual exploitation of a child.

Ralph Colamussi, 61, of East Northport, NY and Roberto Villanueva, 60, residing in the Philippines, are alleged to have forced immigrants to work without pay at The Thatched Cottage in Centerport.  Each are being charged with conspiring to engage in forced labor of immigrants and visa fraud, as well as related substantive counts, fraud in foreign labor contracting and fraudulent inducement of aliens to enter and remain in the United States in violation of law.

Jose Francisco Morales Jr., from El Cenizo, Texas, is the last of 13 to be convicted in the conspiracy in which illegal aliens were smuggled past Border Patrol checkpoints between September 2015 and June 2017.

On Dec. 4, the following defendants pleaded guilty to the smuggling charges: brothers Lucio Segundo, 31, and Christopher Segundo, 23, of Giddings, Texas. On Monday, four others entered their guilty pleas: Francisco Segura, 29, also of Giddings; Alex De La Rosa, 23, of San Marcos, Texas; Jesus Perez, 24, of La Grange; and David Cedillo, 46, of Austin.

Omar Gonzalez-Herrera, 25, from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, admitted during his Dec. 4 re-arraignment that he was hoping to be paid $1,500 in exchange for guiding a group of 14 persons across the Rio Grande River to illegally enter the United States.

Juan Perez-Alcoser, 21, from Mission, was sentenced Nov. 28 by U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez to 160 months in prison. At the hearing, Judge Alvarez noted that Perez-Alcoser’s behavior was slightly less culpable than the other defendants, but that it was still a serious matter. “People were stolen like merchandise,” she noted. “You’re selling people to make money,” she added when comparing the criminal behavior to that of slavery.

Illegal aliens risk everything when they come across the border. They have no rights, no freedom and are at the mercy of their smugglers or captors.

Bruce Trenshel Davis, aka “Wheatie,” 25, of Shreveport, Louisiana, and Brandon Ray Austin, aka “Pep,” 31, of Fort Worth, appeared Wednesday in federal court on a federal criminal complaint stemming from their attempt to threaten witnesses who were cooperating with law enforcement to prosecute a child sex trafficking organization. Demarcus Davis, Kentrell Davis, Pierre Lagrone, Herman Sanders and Reginald Smith were among the eight charged.

According to the indictment, between 2009 and 2011, Harshinder Bhatia, 58, forced and threatened an Indian national woman to work causing her to believe that if she did not perform such labor and services, she would suffer serious harm.  The indictment charges that this crime involved aggravated sexual abuse and was furthered by Bhatia possessing the victim’s passport.

Marquist Fulcher, aka “Keezie,” 28, of Fort Worth, Texas, faces a maximum penalty of up to life in prison and a $250,000 fine.  Fulcher will remain in custody pending sentencing which is set for Jan. 31, 2018.

James Matthew Bradley Jr., 61, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad, Oct. 16, and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport aliens resulting in death and one count of transporting aliens resulting in death.

This superseding indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney Richard L. Durbin Jr., Western District of Texas, and Special Agent in Charge Shane Folden with U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in San Antonio.

Markell Quashan Sweargin, 19, of Lubbock, Texas, was arrested in June on a criminal complaint charging him with transporting a person in interstate commerce for the purpose of forcing the person to engage in a commercial sex act. The complaint alleged that on June 14, officers of the Hobbs (New Mexico) Police Department arrested Sweargin on state charges after responding to a domestic disturbance call from a woman, who claimed that Sweargin strangled and assaulted her during an altercation arising from her refusal to engage in a sexual act with another man for money.

Luis Aguilar Jr., 19; brothers Alhan Sanchez, 20, and Aaron Sanchez, 21, and Ricardo Renteria, 26, all of Mission; and Renteria’s nephew Ricardo Renteria-Rivera, 23, a Mexican citizen illegally present in the United States, were sentenced Sept. 5 by U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez.

Lili Huang, 36 of Woodbury, Minnesota, was sentenced for withholding documents, as well as enslaving, starving and beating a victim in a forced-labor case.

The driver, Comothial Harper, 44, a U.S. citizen from Bainbridge, Georgia, was arrested and charged with transporting illegal aliens for financial gain. Gerardo Aguilar-Roque, 35, one of the passengers, was arrested and charged with possession with the intent to distribute marijuana.

James Matthew Bradley Jr., 60, faces the following charges in the five-count indictment: one count of conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens for financial gain resulting in death; one count of transporting illegal aliens resulting in death; one count of conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens for financial gain resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy; one count of transporting illegal aliens resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy; and, one count of possessing a firearm by a convicted felon.