News Releases and Statements

ICE has named Vance Callender as the new special agent in charge over Michigan and Ohio for HSI office, based in Detroit.

According to a USMS, Rene Antonio “Scrapy” Hernandez-Mejia was wanted for being part of the 18 Revolutionary Pandilla, a terrorist organization which is a faction of an El Salvadorian gang called Shadow Park Locos. It is alleged that this gang is involved with crimes such as homicide, extortion, and terrorization.

Alain Paul DeCock, a 58-year-old Belgian man who murdered both his parents in northern Virginia with a .22 caliber rifle in 1982 was removed to his home country Tuesday by officers with ICE's ERO.

On Wednesday, ICE's ERO repatriated Roberto Carlos Silva-Pereira, 45, a citizen of El Salvador who is wanted for bribery and money laundering in his native country in addition to murder in Guatemala.

Jeffrey Esposito, of Shelbyville, Indiana, who was charged by indictment with twenty counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of possession of child pornography on April 11, 2018, received the sentence in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

Dassahed Marines, 29, from McAllen, Texas, was also sentenced to 20 years of supervised release to be served immediately following his release from prison, during which time he will have to comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the internet. He must also register as a sex offender.

Rafael Diaz, 31, Rio Grande City, was sentenced to 145 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by 5 years of supervised release for conspiracy to possess and distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana.

Jody Tremayne Wafer, 30, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced today to 84 months in federal prison and three years’ supervised release for organizing and leading a conspiracy to traffic marijuana grown in Portland to Texas.

Akeem Garnett, 37, a.k.a. “Akeen Dean Garnett” and “Emerson Edmund Hewitt,” whose most recent residence was in Beverly Hills, was named in a one-count federal grand jury indictment that alleges he illegally reentered the United States

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.

Jorge Flores-Villalba, 27, a Mexican national, was arrested by Stony Point Town Police Dec. 25, for fleeing from the fatal hit-and-run.

Consistent with the agency’s protocols, the appropriate state health and local law enforcement agencies have been notified about this death, as have the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, and ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

Carlos Bartolo-Rios was arrested December 19 by the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, of which ICE and the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office are members, after executing a state criminal warrant at Bartolo-Rios’s North Charleston residence for first degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

ICE ERO removed Sergio Leonardo Ruchtein Dec. 18, to his home country of Argentina where local authorities took him into custody. Ruchtein entered the United States on March 20, 2019 through Miami, Florida as a nonimmigrant.

Jeffrey Mons Olson, who was indicted by a federal grand jury Sept. 5, 2019, is scheduled to be sentenced March 19.

Consistent with the agency’s protocols, the appropriate agencies have been notified about the death, including the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, and the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility. Additionally, ICE has notified the Nigerian consulate and Mr. Akinyemi’s next of kin.

Five of the criminal aliens apprehended were previously released by the city of Philadelphia due to the sanctuary city policies. The crimes of these individuals ranged from multiple DUIs to possession and intent to distribute Heroin, as well as violating U.S. immigration law.

Alexander Nathan Barter, 23, from Joaquin, Texas, pleaded guilty Friday to federal child exploitation violations, which included repeated interest in raping, killing and cannibalizing a 13-year-old girl as part of an undercover sting operation.

ICE's HSI special agents and taskforce officers on BEST executed a federal search warrant late Tuesday night and discovered a tunnel along the U.S. Mexico border, seizing nearly 200 lbs. of methamphetamine, almost two pounds of white heroin, close to three pounds of cocaine, over six and a half pounds of fentanyl, in addition to arresting two individuals and seizing one vehicle.