News Releases and Statements

Thomas Cramer, 41, was sentenced by US District Court Frank P. Geraci, Jr. and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York.

Pauline Lopez Grijalva, 53, the alleged leader of the smuggling ring, and 11 others were arrested in January by the Native American Targeted Investigations of Violent Enterprises.

Joaquin Mendez-Hernandez, aka 'El Flaco,' 35, formerly of Mexico, was arrested as part of an HSI investigation dubbed Operation Dark Night, which has resulted in the conviction of 23 defendants and the rescue of 12 victims.

An Egyptian human trafficking victim enslaved as a girl in southern California wrote an autobiography that details her ordeal and subsequent life in the U.S. after being rescued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents and the local police department.

After he serves his 130-month prison sentence, Kizzy Kalu, 49, of Highlands Ranch, Colo., was also ordered by Chief U.S. District Judge Marcia S. Krieger to serve three years on supervised release, and pay $3,790,338.55 in restitution to the victims of his crime.

Taleek Sherrod Swinney pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking on Nov. 4 for prostituting women since 2006. He started in New York City, but later trafficked women and girls for sex in multiple states along the East Coast from Connecticut to Florida, including in Virginia, Maryland and Washington.

Armando Ivan Palomares-Castro, 37, was sentenced Jan. 21 by Chief U.S. District Judge Raner Collins to 15 years in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release. His co-defendant, Francisco Javier Labrador-Valderrama, 21, was sentenced in October to nine years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

A jury convicted Andrew Blane Fields, 62, of Lutz, on five counts of sex trafficking and three counts of narcotics distribution Nov. 6. He distributed controlled substances to victims to coerce them to participate in his sex trafficking scheme.

Timothy McCullouch Jr., 28, an El Paso County juvenile probation officer, was arrested Friday by HSI and FBI special agents.

HSI Manila assisted the PNP in a human trafficking rescue operation including the execution of two search and arrest warrants on two commercial sex establishments - Aby Lynn and Lovely Paradise - in Balibago, Angeles City. These establishments provided children for sexual acts to foreign customers, including customers from the United States.

Charles Ray Benavidez, an Aviation Ordnanceman Second Class at the Naval Air Station in Lemoore, is scheduled to be sentenced March 17.

A Jamaican man, Damion St. Patrick Baston, was arrested Tuesday in New York for his role in a sex trafficking operation.

Rita Law is suspected of operating a prostitution ring out of three massage parlors in northwest Indiana.

The third and final defendant has been sentenced in a violent hostage case involving three Mexican men who held three smuggled aliens in a West Phoenix drop house while attempting to extort thousands of dollars from their family in Washington state.

A convicted alien smuggler from Mexico, Jose Guadalupe Reyna-Esparza, was sentenced Thursday to nine years imprisonment for smuggling illegal aliens and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl repeatedly.

Jose Gallegos, 47, was caught at the Sarita Border Patrol checkpoint Aug. 17 with a scantily clad 18-year-old female passenger.

Eliezer Lazo, 40, Joel Martinez-Hernandez, 37, and Yilian Hernandez, 30, allegedly conspired to bring certain aliens into the United States. They are also accused of kidnapping and extortion.

Idelfonso Garcia-Benitez, from Michoacan, Mexico, was indicted on one count of conspiring to transport aliens, 14 counts of transporting aliens and one count of illegal re-entry after deportation. He pleaded guilty Aug. 22 to all counts as charged without a written plea agreement.

Gregory Boone, 29, and Randy Coleman Jr., 33, were arrested following a joint investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Pittston Police Department and the Pennsylvania State Police.

Francisco Javier Astorga-Velarde, 23, and Jose Pedro Soto-Valdez, 24, were both sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton to 12 years in prison. Their co-defendant, Noel Galindez-Marmolejo, 33, was sentenced to 10 years.

This sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson, Southern District of Texas.

German de Jesus Ventura, 35, a citizen of El Salvador and an illegal alien residing in Capitol Heights, Md., was sentenced to 35 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, by U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. for conspiring to transport and entice females to travel interstate for prostitution; transporting females for prostitution; enticing females to travel interstate for prostitution; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion and possessing a gun in furtherance of sex trafficking.

Ruth Antuanet Miller, 35, faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment when she is sentenced March 28.

Favian LaTorre, a former police officer with the Dallas Independent School District, was sentenced Friday to one year and one day in federal prison after he pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to harbor an illegal alien.