News Releases and Statements

Humberto Reveles, 61, was sentenced to 33 months imprisonment by U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen. Judge Hanen also ordered Reveles to serve three years of supervised release. He was further ordered to pay restitution of $198,795 to 144 victims of the scheme. In handing down the sentence, Judge Hanen noted this scheme was just as bad as coyotes smuggling people into the United States.

Agustin Espinoza-Betancourt, 34, is the subject of an Interpol Red Notice for allegedly committing murder in 1999 in Morelos, Mexico. According to the Red Notice, on Feb 6, 1999, Espinoza-Betancourt got into an altercation with his neighbors — a mother and son — and shot the son four times, killing him. The mother attempted to shield her son and was shot twice, but survived.

Azucena Garcia-Ferniza, 22, a citizen of Mexico, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a firearm while unlawfully in the United States. In her plea, she admitted that on May 7, 2015, she unlawfully possessed a Glock model 30 .45-caliber pistol. Her visitor’s visa had expired in February 1998.

Oscar Garcia, 46, was in Oklahoma state custody serving a prison sentence on an unrelated drug-trafficking conviction at the time he committed the crimes to which he pleaded guilty Oct. 7. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Garcia will be sentenced to 15 years in prison; after he completes his sentence, he will be turned over to ICE custody and placed in removal proceedings.

James Dale Pressnall, 50, first came to the attention of HSI special agents between August and October 2015 when child pornography images were downloaded from a peer to peer network on a computer within his home.

The identity theft charges to which the seven defendants have pleaded guilty carry a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

Benjamin C. Glassman, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and law enforcement agencies in the task force, announced the conviction by Carlos Pavon, 42, an illegal alien from Honduras.

Juan Carlos Aguilar-Membreno, 25, the subject of an Interpol warrant for aggravated homicide and a confirmed MS-13 gang affiliation, the national and transnational gang with branches or “cliques” operating throughout the United States, was taken into ICE custody on June 1, 2016. He was ordered removed from the United States on August 24, 2016 by an Immigration judge.

Shane Roach, 27, was arrested July 1, 2015, on a criminal complaint charging him with sex trafficking.  Roach subsequently was indicted and charged with using force, threats and coercion to force a victim to engage in commercial sex acts.  

On April 6, 2015, authorities tracked a cell phone in the possession of the missing teenager to Franklin Township, New Jersey. HSI and FBI special agents, and police officers from Franklin Township located the missing girl and Monteiro in a hotel room in Franklin Township.

Alexey Barysheff, 36, along with his cohorts Dmitrii Aleksandrovich Karpenko, 33, and Alexey Krutilin, 27, is charged with acquiring sophisticated military and satellite technology on behalf of Russian end-users. 

According to the terms of his plea agreement, Andy Garcia Jr., 43, will be sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and a term of supervised release to be determined by the court.

Members of the HSI-led Missouri Gateway Task Force were recently awarded the prestigious 2016 OCDETF Director’s Award for Group Achievements. The award was presented Sept. 29 at the RAC St. Louis office by OCDETF Assistant U.S. Attorney James C. Delworth, Eastern District of Missouri.

Dicson Penagos-Casanova, 36, and Juan Gabriel Rios Sierra, 34, are charged in an indictment unsealed Tuesday with spearheading the conspiracy to “coordinate aerial shipments of ton-quantities of cocaine” for sale to “cocaine-trafficking syndicates” in Central America. The shipments included more than $70 million in cocaine recovered by international law enforcement.

Juan Macario Bautista-Martinez, 23, was transferred by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers to the custody of representatives from the Mexican Attorney General’s Office at the Brownsville, Texas, port of entry. Bautista-Martinez is charged in an arrest warrant issued in 2012 with a double homicide committed in Oaxaca, Mexico, in April 2010. 

According to court documents, Guillermo Lucas-Mazariegos, 31, of Guatemala, was previously removed from the United States to Guatemala in April 2008 and September 2010, and was also previously removed from the United States to Mexico in April 2011.

Edwin Josue Torres, 24, of Sherman Oaks, California, was ordered detained pending trial. He was arrested Sept. 29, and was charged in a criminal complaint with methamphetamine trafficking after the New Mexico State Police (NMSP) seized about 38.25 lbs. of methamphetamine from him following a routine traffic stop.

Ratko Maslenjak, 57, a former Cleveland-area resident and his wife, Divna Maslenjak, 53, arrived in Belgrade, Serbia, Oct. 1, via commercial aircraft. ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers witnessed the pair’s departure from JFK International Airport and confirmed their arrival with Serbian authorities.

Jeanne J. Barron, 24, was arrested in July 2015 on a criminal complaint charging her with possession of methamphetamine and heroin with intent to distribute July 10, 2015, in Bernalillo County, New Mexico.

The charge to which Ruben Fuentes Jr., 38, of Oklahoma City, pleaded guilty stemmed from a seizure of more than 13 lbs. of methamphetamine during a traffic stop.

This agreement brings the total HSI TTU international partners to 14.