News Releases and Statements
News Releases and Statements
Franklin Santa Maria Fajardo, 29, allegedly attempted to smuggle the undocumented individuals into the United States through Mexico. He was spotted in the vicinity of Tapachula, Mexico, driving a passenger van above the legal speed limit.
Miriam Kizzie, aka "Keys" and "Keyshawn," 21, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young to 153 months in prison and five years of supervised release. In February 2015, Kizzie pleaded guilty to two counts of sex trafficking of minors.
Vanessa Grandoit, 26, of Roxbury, was sentenced today to one year and one day in prison and five years of supervised release. Kairis Sanchez, aka “Lola,” of Dorchester and Portland, Maine, was sentenced on April 29, 2015, to 18 months in prison and five years of supervised release.
Paulino Ramirez-Granados, who had been on the most wanted list since 2010, was charged in the Eastern District of New York with sex trafficking, alien smuggling, money laundering and conspiracy to import aliens.
Homero Gonzalez-Carranza, 30, a citizen of Mexico, pleaded guilty to being a boss for transporting illegal aliens from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston from January 2007 until January 2015. Illegal aliens were harbored at stash houses in Houston until being transported to their final destinations throughout the United States.
As a result of the April 23 verdict, Eduardo Rocha Sr., aka “Lalo,” 44, faces the following possible sentence: up to 20 years in prison each for conspiracy to transport illegal aliens involving serious bodily injury and conspiracy to transport illegal aliens involving serious bodily injury; up to 20 years in prison on each of three separate counts of harboring an illegal alien involving serious bodily injury; and up to life in prison on each of two counts of conspiracy to commit hostage taking.
Edwin Obdulio Milian Garcia, Maria Cecilia Ponce and Magaly Guzman Godoy allegedly ran a human smuggling and trafficking ring that charged would-be Central American “customers” the equivalent of anywhere between $7,000 and $10,000 in U.S. currency.
Gustavo Villegas, 28, of Laredo, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Janis Graham to 27 months in prison, which is to be followed by two years of supervised release. Villegas was arrested Oct. 23, 2014.
Otoniel Galindo Vasquez-Lopez, 29, of Bossier City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow in Phoenix to more than 14 years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release for his role as the leader of an Arizona-based alien smuggling organization that illegally moved hundreds of aliens across the southern border into Arizona and then transferred them throughout the Southeast to multiple cities in Tennessee.
Jose Heriberto Lopez, 42, Jose Arenas-Lucero, 51, and Miguel Angel Medina-Ortiz, 37, pleaded guilty in September, October and November 2014, respectively. U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore considered relevant conduct for an incident in Oklahoma which involved the death of an alien being transported by Lopez.
Erika Jasmine Acosta, 27 and Xochitl Ann Prado, 35, both of Payette, made their initial appearances April 2, in Boise federal court.
Milton Charles Wilson, also known as “Barbwire,” 59, of Kansas City, Missouri, and Kayla Pinkerton, also known as “Foxy,” 19, of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, pleaded guilty in separate court appearances to one count each of interstate transportation for prostitution.
Martin Margarito-Casimiro, 28, of Camargo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, was originally charged in February 2015 on the firearms charge and was remanded to custody pending further criminal proceedings. A federal grand jury in McAllen returned the superceding indictment adding the conspiracy and kidnapping allegations April 1.
Otoniel Galindo Vasquez-Lopez, 29, of Louisiana, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Ping Liu, 43, and Xingdi Lin, 48, both of Wichita, Kansas, were charged with one count each of attempting to persuade, induce, entice or coerce an individual to cross state lines to engage in prostitution and one each count of using a telephone in furtherance of prostitution.
ICE’s request to join the network was unanimously approved Feb. 23. ICE also works with Europol’s Operations Department in the areas of intellectual property rights, child sexual exploitation and cybercrime. The joint cooperation has already led to various successes, such as the seizure of 292 internet domain names for selling counterfeit products and the recent rescue of a sex abuse victim.
Those arrested include: Rubén Darío Sosa, Luis Manuel Martínez Castillo, Franklin Sánchez García, Rolfi Ismael Ventura, Manuel Emilio Martínez, Idalia Luciano Ferrera and Aniberca Castro Peña.
Marco Antonio Yudico-Vega, 43, was arrested Feb. 24 by agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Office of Border Patrol (OBP) who were investigating alien smuggling activity in the area. About noon, Yudico-Vega crossed legally into El Paso from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and proceeded to a motel in the 4100 block of Alameda Avenue.
The indictments result from the close collaboration between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Mexico City Attaché Office, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Mexican Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR).
Sharilyn Kae Anderson, 46, pleaded guilty to conspiring with her son to engage in sex trafficking, following a joint probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD).
Deshawn King, 35, pleaded guilty in January 2014, to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of women by force, fraud and coercion; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of attempted sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion. King’s co-defendant, Daniel Blount, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced on July 15, 2014 to 20 years in prison.
Michael Anthony Randall, aka “Divine tha Victorious Mack,” 32, previously from Charlottesville, Virginia, and Galveston, Texas, but mostly recently from Houston, faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
“On its face, human trafficking is about as heinous and repugnant as a crime can be,” said Jorge Lopez, HSI section chief in the Illicit Finance and Proceeds of Crime Unit. “The banking and financial industry can be a powerful force in assisting HSI as we combat the horrible crime of human trafficking. We look towards financial institutions to be among our greatest allies in identifying interstate funnel accounts, as well as other money laundering methods used by human traffickers and smugglers.”
Sean Cantelmo, 28, admitted to conspiring with others to have a 17-year-old female engage in prostitution and illegal sexual activity during February through May 2014. Cantelmo admitted that he and others used a cell phone to post advertisements for “escort services” involving the minor female on a website, rented motel rooms in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties to facilitate the prostitution activities, and purchased condoms for the minor to use when engaging in commercial sex acts.
Samuel Castro-Flores, aka “Chame” or “Chamuco,” 42, a Mexican national, was sentenced to life in prison plus an additional seven years for brandishing a firearm while committing the hostage-taking offenses.
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