News Releases and Statements

Sergio Cobaruvias Romero, 55, of Mexico was sentenced Feb. 18 by Senior District Judge George Kazen to 120 months in federal prison. As an illegal alien, Cobaruvias Romero is expected to face deportation proceedings following his release from prison.

Rhonda R. Bridge, 42, of Overland Park, Kansas, was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for employing illegal aliens, who were paid less than other employees. In addition to her prison sentence, Bridge also agreed to forfeit her interest in two hotels and the funds derived from the crime.

Dustin Coleman, 22, of Wahpeton, North Dakota, was sentenced to 384 months in prison on three counts of producing child pornography, two counts of extorting sexually explicit images and videos from a child by threat of injury and damage to reputation, and three counts of possessing child pornography. "Sextortion" involves the coercion of an individual to commit sexually explicit acts.

Those charged so far in the ongoing investigation are John David Yoder, 43, a former teacher’s aide for the Palm Springs Unified School District; Erick Alan Monsivais, 29, of Los Angeles; and William Clyde Thompson, 54, of Las Vegas. The men are named in a five-count federal indictment filed in the District of Nevada last week and in three separate criminal complaints filed by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

John “Johnny” Anthony Sassine, 53, was sentenced Feb. 17 to 78 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Ron Clark. He pleaded guilty to the charge Nov. 4.

Irfan Ul Haq pleaded guilty in 2011 to providing material support to the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, a designated foreign terrorist organization. As part of the guilty plea, Haq agreed to a stipulated order of removal upon the completion of his criminal sentence.

Damion Bryan Barrett, 28, was charged in a 38-count indictment with conspiracy and 37 counts of wire fraud and committing these offenses via telemarketing. Barrett is the first Jamaican citizen to be extradited from that country to the United States based on charges of defrauding Americans in connection with a lottery scheme.

Ronald Carey Shirley, 64, was taken into custody at Los Angeles International Airport as he boarded a Philippines Air flight. The former accountant is charged in a criminal complaint with attempting to produce and attempting to receive child pornography. The charges stem from online communications of a sexual nature the defendant had with underage females in the Philippines and Vietnam, including some messages in which he allegedly solicited sexually explicit images of the victims.

Dubbed “Operation Roundtable,” the case against Johnson has thus far resulted in ten additional individuals being criminally charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Orleans. To date, all ten defendants have pleaded guilty to crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children.

Bonnie Monique Youn, 45, has been charged in a superseding indictment with two new counts of visa fraud, two new counts of alien harboring, and two new counts of witness tampering.

Three members of the street gang known as Mara Salvatrucha 13, or MS-13, were sentenced Friday for violent crimes they committed in the Atlanta metropolitan area, including the murder of one man and the shootings of two others, one of whom was a 14-year-old boy.

Kieron Mann, 45, was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release, to continue to register as a sex offender and to pay $50,000 as restitution to his victims.

U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings ordered Christopher Wayne Howard, 26, of Joshua, Texas, to surrender to the Federal Bureau of Prisons to commence his sentence on March 20.

Mustasim Abdulaziz Alati, 24, was escorted by ERO officers and turned over to officials with the Saudi Arabia Ministry of the Interior (MOI) Feb. 12. Alati last entered the United States as a student Aug. 12, 2014 to attend the University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.

Gregory Zimmerman, 43, of Oswego, Illinois, was charged with possessing with intent to distribute a controlled substance in a criminal complaint that was filed Feb. 4 in federal court and unsealed Tuesday. Zimmerman, a licensed chiropractor, self-surrendered to authorities Feb. 9 and was released on a $25,000 bond.

The charges against Darius X. Johnson are the result of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Inspector General for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Johnson made an initial appearance Wednesday in Atlanta federal court.

Juan Manuel Larios-Buentello, 50, a Mexican national encountered in New Richmond, Wisconsin, was sentenced Feb. 12 by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 36 months in federal prison for illegally re-entering the United States after having been deported. Larios-Buentello pleaded guilty to this charge Nov. 25.

Joel Sesma-Garcia, 40, was sentenced Feb. 10 and Gerald Fidel Herrera, 41, was sentenced Jan. 30 by U.S. District Judge Jennifer G. Zipps. Judge Zipps ordered Sesma-Garcia to serve a term of 25 years, while Herrera received a 15-year sentence. According to investigators, the cocaine trafficking ring operated from 2008 to 2012.

Jesus Roldan Rubio, of Puebla, Mexico, was charged by criminal complaint Jan. 20. He was indicted Feb. 3 and on Feb. 12 he made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker.

Joel Aguirre-Lara, 35, of Greenville, Texas, was convicted Oct. 15, 2014, of transporting a minor to engage in sexual activity and aggravated sexual abuse of a child under 12 years of age.

The initial arrests involved two suspected smugglers identified as Hector Alexander Sanchez-Acosta and Guillermo Boada-Gonzalez, of Venezuela, on board a delivery vessel after it was launched from the Atlantic VII, a 268-foot St. Vincent and Grenadines-flag coastal freighter.

According to court documents, Donald W. Lamoureaux, 68, of Ash Flat, was arrested following an undercover investigation in which Fort Smith officers posed in an Internet chat room as a mother offering her 4-year-old daughter for sex.

Larry Richie Fields, 45, of Wingate, Texas, has been in federal custody since his arrest in January on related charges. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of not less than five years and up to 20 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine, and a lifetime of supervised release.

Casey Wayne Stallings, 30, of Kirtland, New Mexico, was sentenced to 180 months in federal prison according to the terms of his plea agreement. His co-defendant, Jessica Chance Lucero, 25, also of Kirtland, pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony.