News Releases and Statements

Tanya Figueroa-Pagan, 33, of Toa Baja, was arrested by HSI agents after a referral from Puerto Rico Police Department’s (PRPD) Sexual Crimes Division in Arecibo led to an HSI investigation that revealed she held sexually explicit conversations with a 13-year-old male minor and proposed taking him to a hotel to engage in criminal sexual conduct.

Jonathan Javier Mejia-Ventura, 18, was encountered Aug. 15, 2015, by U.S. Customs and Border Protection near Hebbronville, Texas, after he illegally crossed the border into the United States.

Throughout her interviews, Gonzalez made a point to clarify that U.S. immigration laws have not changed, and that there are no new benefits for unaccompanied children or family units that try to enter the United States illegally.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore Special Agent In Charge (SAC) Andre Watson gave opening remarks at The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives’ (NOBLE) 2016 William R. Bracey Winter CEO Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

February is "Black History Month," a time to commemorate African-Americans who have changed the world. In 1976, the Bicentennial of the U.S.A., the week-long observance was extended to the entire month of February in order to have enough time for celebratory programs and activities.

Kenneth Verzani, 63, of Farmington, New Mexico, was arrested in November 2015 on a five-count indictment charging him with methamphetamine trafficking offenses.

The contraband, 13 bales containing 329 bricks of cocaine with a weight of 361 kilograms, was intercepted 74 nautical miles south of Vieques.

Jesus Figueroa, 69, of Tujunga, was found guilty Thursday of one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and to impede the lawful function of government immigration agencies.

Mykhaylo Botsvynyuk, 37, and Yaroslav Churuk, 48, were convicted at trial, on Feb. 24, of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, in relation to several predicate offenses in furtherance of the conspiracy, including: a) peonage; b) involuntary servitude; c) extortion and attempted extortion; d) and several immigration offenses, including bringing aliens into the United States at a place other than a designated port of entry, encouraging or inducing illegal entry of aliens, transporting aliens, and harboring illegal aliens for purposes of financial gain.

Ramiro Saenz, 28, was arrested in September 2014 on a criminal complaint charging him with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition in Doña Ana County, New Mexico.

Adam C. Cobb, 47, of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of child pornography. Cobb was arrested in April 2015.

Officials came together in El Paso, Texas, for the Repatriation Strategy and Policy Executive Coordination Team (RESPECT) meeting to discuss bilateral efforts and successes regarding repatriation processes.

Matthew Harbin, 30, of Brownsville, Texas, was sentenced Feb. 23 by Senior U.S. District Judge Hayden Head to serve 300 months for the Corpus Christi charges and another 120 months for a similar case in the Northern District of Alabama; these sentences will be served consecutively for a total of 420 months in federal prison, and will be followed by a lifetime of supervised release.

After a five-day trial in federal court, the jury convicted Enkhchimeg Ulziibayar Edwards, aka “Eni Edwards,” on two counts of witness tampering and two counts of making false statements to the Executive Branch of the U.S. government.

Paul Charles Wilkins, 70, of Littleport in East Cambridgeshire, England, who had dual United States-United Kingdom citizenship, is charged with one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and one count of attempted sex trafficking of children.

Jason D. Boudreau, 41, of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, was arraigned Monday on federal indictment charging him with 33 counts of allegedly accessing child pornography online. A federal grand jury returned the indictment on February 16, 2016.

Evert Henry, 41, of Lebanon, Missouri, was charged in an indictment returned Feb. 22 by a federal grand jury in Springfield.

Following a bench trial June 19, 2015, Luisa Vargas, a U.S. permanent resident residing in Houston, was convicted of sex trafficking a minor and harboring illegal aliens. The following other three defendants had previously pleaded guilty to sex trafficking minors: Dolores Vargas, also a U.S. permanent resident in Houston; Blasina Vargas, a naturalized U.S. citizen residing in Houston; and Ignacio Escandon, a citizen of Cuba.

Jun Yang, 37, who served as president of Arctic Products, Inc., based in Richmond, British Columbia, appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Cindy K. Jorgenson.

Ameri-Source International Inc., Ameri-Source Specialty Products Inc., Ameri-Source Holdings Inc., owned by Ajay Goel and Thomas Diener, and a related import company, SMC Machining LLC, incorporated at Goel’s direction and formerly owned by his wife, imported small-diameter graphite electrodes from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). These devices are columns of synthetic graphite with diameters of around 16 inches or less which are used as fuel in electric arc and ladle furnaces, such as those used in steel manufacturing.

Yahya Jawad, 57, from Binghamton, New York, was sentenced following a Sept. 29 plea agreement to one count of trafficking in counterfeit goods.

James McGlothlin, 39, of Portland, is charged in a criminal complaint with one count of producing child pornography.

Edin Sakoč, 55, of Burlington, Vermont, stipulated to the court’s order of denaturalization and loss of citizenship based on a civil complaint alleging that he illegally and fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship by giving false or misleading information to a U.S. official.

According to documents filed in his case, in March 2015, Marcos Antonio Gamez, 23, of Sonora, engaged in sexually explicit conduct with a minor female, and he used his cellphone to produce a video of that conduct. Gamez also persuaded this girl to recruit another girl to join them in sexually explicit conduct, but this second girl declined to participate.