News Releases and Statements

A federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment Wednesday against Ignacio Garcia that charges one count each of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens, transporting illegal aliens, and illegal re-entry after deportation.

Kerin Hamim allegedly facilitated the employment of dozens of illegal temporary employees to a meat packaging business located in Scranton. It is alleged that Hamim knowingly provided transportation for the illegal workers and paid the illegal workforce in cash on a weekly basis.

Antonio Rivera, the former owner of the bars Sonidos de la Frontera in Lake Ronkonkoma and La Hija del Mariachi in Farmingville, was sentenced to 60 years of imprisonment Wednesday for his lead role in a sex trafficking and forced labor ring.

Craig Jerome Gadley Jr., 23, pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking a minor. Joshua Alexander Smith, 25, pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion. Both men are from Mansfield, Texas.

Jesus Quinones-Chavez, a Mexican man who attempted to smuggle seven illegal aliens, including a convicted felon, into the U.S. aboard a cabin cruiser that ran aground near San Clemente last September, faces up to 90 years in prison following his conviction in federal court Thursday.

Campbell was also ordered to pay a $500 assessment to the Federal Crime Victim's Fund.

German Rolando Vicente-Sapon, a Guatemalan man illegally present in the United States, was sentenced to more than 15 years in federal prison Thursday for sexually abusing a teenage Guatemalan girl he illegally trafficked across the Mexican border.

Three Mexican citizens are in federal custody on sex trafficking charges in Atlanta following a joint investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the FBI.

HSI special agents were first alerted to the case Sunday evening after local law enforcement agencies requested federal assistance.

Sanderlei Alves DaCruz, a manager and supervisor of an international scheme responsible for smuggling into the United States hundreds of illegal aliens from Brazil, India, and elsewhere from January 2008 through June 2011, was sentenced Wednesday to 51 months in prison.

Two men from India and Brazil were each sentenced Friday to serve 36 months in federal prison for their roles in smuggling illegal aliens into the United States for private financial gain.

Three Mexican men face federal hostage-taking charges following their arrest Tuesday at a West Valley human smuggling drop house discovered by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) teamed up Wednesday to thwart an attempt by human smugglers to sneak Brazilian nationals into the United States. A CBP marine unit intercepted a 20-foot single engine vessel with five persons on board Wednesday near Thatch Cay.

Jean Claude Roy, aka Dredd the Don and Dreddy, 30, faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison for each of three counts on sex trafficking and a maximum of 10 years in prison for each of three counts of interstate transportation for prostitution.

Authorities allege that the extensive operation spanned multiple communities in Massachusetts including: Bedford, Billerica, Medford, Reading, Wilmington and Woburn.

Law enforcement officers arrested Peter D. Kitt and Shawn D. Franklin Friday morning for their roles in the ring.

Yanira del Carmen Guerrero Andrade, an illegal alien from El Salvador who was residing in Adelphi, Md., was sentenced Friday to 132 months in federal prison for recruiting a 15-year-old, pregnant runaway to engage in commercial sex acts for a trafficking ring with ties to the notorious street gang Mara Salvatrucha Thirteen (MS-13).

The owner and operator of a Korean 'doumi' business, which provided female escorts to customers at nightclubs in Annandale, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to commit alien harboring, following a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) case.

The group allegedly exploited dozens of women, some of whom were trafficked from Mexico to New York and forced to engage in prostitution.

A federal jury convicted German de Jesus Ventura, 35, a citizen of El Salvador living unlawfully in the country and residing in Capitol Heights, Md., of 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.

A previously deported illegal alien from Mexico, Idelfonso Garcia-Benitez, was charged Thursday with smuggling a group of 14 illegal aliens that resulted in seven being killed and one injured in critical condition.

Andrew Blane Fields engaged in the sex trafficking of three different victims for commercial gain. Fields coerced and controlled the victims by, among other methods, supplying them with a large number of highly addictive prescription drugs on a daily basis.

Two men were arrested Wednesday on state charges of felony murder, human smuggling, and engaging in organized criminal activity. On Jan. 20, 2012, a group of illegal aliens were hiding inside an air dam compartment of a tractor when one of the females fell from the moving vehicle that was traveling on Interstate Highway 35 in Kyle, Texas.

Four Mexican nationals were sentenced to federal prison for their roles in a large human smuggling case that resulted in the discovery of more than 80 illegal aliens in a Houston residence.

A suburban Twin Cities man, Napoleon Long, was indicted in federal court Wednesday for transporting a woman across state lines for the purpose of prostitution in October 2011.