News Releases and Statements

Michael Kyle Sewell, 18, was charged Feb. 8 by criminal complaint with conspiring to provide material support and resources to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani-based foreign terrorist organization.

ICE's HSI Boston Special Agent Michael Morizio was the featured presenter at a well-attended Feb. 5, anti-human trafficking professionals networking and education event hosted by the western Massachusetts division of the Office of the Massachusetts State Attorney General, which focused on effective practices in the identification and combating of human trafficking in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Marvin Yovani Mejia-Ramos – aka Martin Jose Romos-Ramirez, aka Ricardo Rodriguez-Morales – 50, an illegal alien from Honduras who has used multiple aliases and countries of origin, was charged Feb. 6 with illegal re-entry by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.

Four companies and three individuals have agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges related to the illegal importation and sale of $11 million worth of pharmaceutical-grade erectile dysfunction drugs that were falsely marketed as herbal remedies for men. Federal prosecutors today filed two new cases against distributors of the misbranded drugs.

Michael Portanova, age 28, admitted that he used his cell phone to receive images and videos of child pornography, using a file-sharing network on the internet between August 2017 and Oct. 30, 2017, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.

Santos Moreira, 46, a citizen of Belize illegally present in the United States, was found in Los Angeles County on November 2, 2015, according to an indictment returned against him on January 25 by a federal grand jury.

Austin Jones, 26, of Bloomingdale, Illinois, pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography.

At the plea hearing, Jerry Matthew Berry admitted to producing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children and distributing child pornography in 2017 and 2018. Cyber Crimes detectives from Tulsa Police Department and HSI special agents discovered Berry’s illicit activities during a peer-to-peer file-sharing undercover investigation.

The indictments charge operators and clients of three “maternity house” or “birthing house” schemes that were dismantled in March 2015 when federal agents executed 35 search warrants, which resulted from international undercover operations.

John Goelz, 30, exploited his position of trust and authority with one of his student athletes, a minor, for his own sexual gratification.

Rigoberto Calderon-Villeda, 26, came into ICE custody July 30, 2018, after apprehension by the U.S. Border Patrol. At that time, he was detained for illegal entry, and placed into removal proceedings.

Special agents from HSI teamed with industry, CBP, Atlanta police officers and other partner agencies to identify flea markets, retail outlets and street vendors selling counterfeit goods during the week leading up to Super Bowl LIII. They seized fake jerseys, hats, cell-phone accessories and thousands of other bogus items prepared to be sold to unsuspecting consumers.

Charged in the indictments were: Barath Kakireddy, 29, of Lake Mary; Suresh Kandala, 31, of Culpeper; Phanideep Karnati, 35, of Louisville, Kentucky; Prem Rampeesa, 26, of Charlotte, North Carolina; Santosh Sama, 28, of Fremont, California; Avinash Thakkallapally, 28, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Aswanth Nune, 26, of Atlanta, Georgia; and Naveen Prathipati, 26, of Dallas, Texas.

Thomas Irigoyen and Nicholas Ofei Cofie were charged with conspiring to commit wire and mail fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud actors in New York City and elsewhere. Irigoyen was arrested in California and will be presented today before a U.S. Magistrate Judge of the Central District of California, and Cofie was arrested in New York City and presented in federal court in Manhattan.

During the operation, ICE’s ERO arrested 118 individuals for violating U.S. immigration laws. Of those arrested, more than 107 were convicted criminals or had criminal charges pending, more than 55 had been issued a final order of removal and failed to depart the United States, or had been previously removed from the United States and returned illegally. Several had prior felony convictions for serious or violent offenses, such as child sex crimes, weapons charges, and assault, or had past convictions for significant or multiple misdemeanors.

Juan A. Mexicano, 33, of Addison, Illinois, was sentenced Friday to seven years imprisonment in the Illinois Department of Corrections. On Aug. 24, 2018, he pleaded guilty to nine felony counts of unlawfully using a weapon. In December 2018, he was also sentenced in California to more than 11 years in federal prison on a related cocaine trafficking conviction.

Bryan James Hogle, 43, of Las Vegas, Nevada, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Daniel L. Hovland to serve 45 years in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release. Hogle also has a prior conviction for sexually abusing a child in New Hampshire in 2008.

Rogelio Vasquez, 44, pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in counterfeit military goods, two counts of trafficking in counterfeit goods, and one count of wire fraud.

New Mexico Emergency Products (NMEP), an emergency vehicle up-fitter and fleet management company, joined ICE’s employment-compliance program – a voluntary partnership that helps employers maintain a lawful workforce, and reduce unauthorized employment and the use of fraudulent identity documents.

Kyle Dale Ritsema, 36, of Land O’Lakes, pleaded guilty today to producing, distributing and possessing child pornography. He was arrested Feb. 13 by HSI special agents.

According to court documents, Frank Miles, III, 32, of Rockledge, transported at least 69 videos depicting the sexual abuse of children less than 12 years old to his online storage accounts.  State law enforcement officers arrested Miles and charged him with possession of child pornography.

Raul Alberto Barraza-Zavala, 37, was removed Dec. 19 by ERO’s Special Response Team, and was turned over to Mexican authorities.