News Releases and Statements

In total, Ray, Valdez Pinon, Ramnarine, Perez and their co-conspirators paid more than $2 million in bribes to Mexican officials, including Hernandez Montemayor and Nevarez, in order to secure aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul contracts.

Colonel Robert J. Rice, 58 was arrested in May 2014 following an HSI led investigation of his online activities.  In May 2016, following a five-day jury trial, Rice was found guilty for knowingly possessing child pornography from Aug. 2010 through Jan. 29, 2013, and receiving and distributing child pornography through the internet from Jan. 23, 2013 through Jan. 28, 2013.

Dandy Somwe Kapila, 29, has an active warrant for his arrest on charges of trafficking in stolen vehicles, fraud, forgery, and falsification charges, issued by Congolese law enforcement.

Manuel Fernando Cajamarca-Curillo, 25, the subject of an Interpol warrant of arrest in Ecuador for the rape of a minor, was ordered removed by a U.S. immigration judge in November. He is also under investigation in Ecuador for the rape and murder of another minor.

During the 11-day enforcement action, ERO officers apprehended 71 aliens with criminal convictions. The remaining three fall under the agency’s enforcement priorities as recent immigration violators. Those arrested had criminal histories with past convictions for drug trafficking, DUI, weapons violations, fraud, domestic violence, burglary and other serious criminal offenses.

Sandra McDonald, 51, a Jamaican national living in Fall River, Massachusetts, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to 27 months in prison. McDonald previously pleaded guilty in September 2016, to passport fraud, theft of public money, and misrepresenting a Social Security number.  She has been held in custody since her arrest in May 2016.

A new exhibit of repatriated cultural property, including paintings, sculptures, manuscripts and vases, recently debuted at the world-renowned Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.  Scheduled to be on display for the next two months, the entire exhibition, comprising more than 250 items, is dedicated to pieces that were stolen or otherwise missing but have since been recovered and repatriated back to Italy.

David Allen Anderton was found guilty by a jury on multiple counts of harboring illegal aliens, conspiracy, and visa fraud.

Victor James Sporman, 46, who previously resided in Bellflower, was named in a two-count indictment returned Tuesday afternoon by a federal grand jury. The indictment charges Sporman with attempted sex trafficking of a child and using the internet to induce a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Clifford Reed, 27, of Cincinnati, Ohio, allegedly purchased multi-kilogram quantities of heroin from various sources in Chicago; He then allegedly mixed it with carfentanil to increase the amount of heroin he could distribute. Carfentanil is a synthetic opioid listed federally as a Schedule II controlled substance.

Alexander Kneginich, 56, was arrested Monday near Kalamazoo, Michigan, by special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) after being indicted on a felony charge of having fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship after he emigrated from Bosnia-Herzegovina to the United States.

Brian Brundage, 45, of Dyer, Indiana, the former owner of Intercon Solutions Inc., and the current owner of EnviroGreen Processing LLC, caused thousands of tons of e-waste and other potentially hazardous materials to be landfilled, re-sold to customers who then shipped the materials overseas, or stockpiled, according to an indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

ICE HSI, working jointly with other federal and local law enforcement agencies, conducted simultaneous takedowns Thursday in the municipality of Cayey, as well as Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Florida, during an operation dubbed ‘Just Punishment’ that resulted in the arrest of 38 individuals for their alleged participation in a drug trafficking and illegal firearms conspiracy.

The federal agencies combined efforts to arrest Luis Venancio Cueto-Ruiz, Leonardo Mateo Cueto-Ruiz, and Gilberto Ulloa-Aguirre Dec. 14 in Everett following a probe into their drug trafficking organization, which is believed to be linked to the Sinaloa Cartel. Bail is set at $250,000 each for the three defendants.

Luis Giralt, 40, is named in an Interpol red notice, charging him with assault. According to Costa Rican authorities, in August 2007, Giralt assaulted a victim outside of a bar in San Jose, Costa Rica, causing injuries that required medical attention.

Recognizing that today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders, the staff at the ICE Academy and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia has once again participated in the United States Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program.

On December 5, 2016, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), Los Angeles Field Office (LAFO) Deportation Officers (DO) Scott Palmer and Charles Smith were recognized by the Assistant Director of the FBI International Operations Division and the Director of the Federal Criminal Intelligence Service in Austria for their efforts in locating and arresting an Austrian fugitive living in the United States.

Kenneth Breslin, 68, of Lafayette, is charged in an indictment with knowingly possessing one or more images of prepubescent minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Until last month, Breslin had been the owner and director of A Child’s Point of View, which provided adolescent, adult and family psychotherapy from an office located in Orinda. Breslin was prohibited from practicing psychology following a Contra Costa Superior Court order issued Nov. 28.

A Fresno woman was sentenced in federal court Monday to 14 months in prison for conspiring to produce, transfer, possess, and sell fake identification documents, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Investigation Division.

Levi Galvan-Galvan, 37, an illegal alien residing in McAllen, was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison Dec. 19 for possessing with intent to distribute cocaine, and being in the country illegally. Since Galvan-Galvan is a not a U.S. citizen, he will be placed in removal proceedings after he completes his prison sentence.

A Mexican woman was sentenced in federal court Monday to time served for unlawfully possessing a firearm connected to a Kansas homicide.

Jordy Javier Menjivar Molina, 22, is wanted in Honduras based on an Oct. 6, 2015, arrest warrant for manslaughter.  According to the Republic of Honduras Technical Criminal Investigative Agency, on June 27, 2015, Molina argued with a patron about music at a local establishment.  Molina stepped outside and retrieved a weapon from his vehicle that was used to murder Jose Hernan Rapalo Rodriguez.  Rodriguez died immediately after being shot.

John I. Waltman, 59, of Trevose, Pennsylvania, Robert P. Hoopes, 69, of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and Bernard T. Rafferty, 62, of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, were named in the indictment.