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November 9, 2014
|Counter Proliferation Investigation Unit
See Kee Chin, aka Alfred Chin, 56, of Hong Kong, was arrested in February after he handed over an $85,000 payment to undercover HSI special agents and attempted to pick up 10 accelerometers. Court records state Chin had indicated he planned to smuggle the parts out of the country in his suitcase. He previously discussed hiding the items in children’s toys.
November 6, 2014
|Contraband
The seizures follow the arrest Wednesday of Blake Benthall, aka "Defcon" for his alleged role in operating the Silk Road 2.0 website. This action constitutes the largest law enforcement action to date against criminal websites operating on the Tor network, a special network of computers on the Internet designed to conceal the true IP addresses of the computers on the network.
November 6, 2014
|Operational
The 26 current graduates are joining the fight against transnational criminal organizations after spending nearly three weeks in classroom seminars and practical exercises as part of the ITAT program, which provides vetted foreign law enforcement officers with training similar to that of the agency's special agents.
November 6, 2014
|Operational
SA Fry boarded the vessel to find the injured crying in pain, in shock and unable to think clearly or move. SA Fry physically removed them from the vessel, handing them to ASAC Fry. SA Fry carried one non-ambulatory woman to a secure secondary location to a brick structure to shield her from another possible explosion.
November 6, 2014
|Child Exploitation
Ronny Lee Waldrip, 63, originally came under suspicion after he traveled to Honolulu in February 2012. Upon his arrival, law enforcement discovered Waldrip brought a laptop computer containing sexually explicit photos and videos of minors, including videos showing Waldrip engaging in sexually explicit conduct with minor females.
November 6, 2014
|Child Exploitation
Michael T. Laursen, 47, was the subject of a multiagency investigation, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). He was convicted at trial in May.
November 5, 2014
|Child Exploitation
Aung Gaw, 26, aka Michael Gaw, of Fremont, California, pleaded guilty to the child pornography charge following his arrest in November 2013 after HSI special agents executed a search warrant at his California residence.
November 5, 2014
|Contraband, Cyber Crimes
Blake Benthall, 26, aka “Defcon” was arrested Thursday in San Francisco, California in connection with his operation and ownership of the Silk Road 2.0 website, a hidden website designed to enable its users to buy and sell illegal drugs and other unlawful goods and services anonymously and beyond the reach of law enforcement.
November 5, 2014
|Child Exploitation
HSI special agents arrested Angel L. Gonzalez-Acevedo, 50, at his place of residence after receiving information from the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD) regarding a cellular phone that allegedly belonged to Gonzalez-Acevedo containing sexually explicit material involving a minor later identified as Jane Doe.
November 5, 2014
|Enforcement and Removal
Hayatullah Dawari, 62, of Philadelphia was sentenced to two years in federal prison Sept. 19 after an investigation found the man had ties to the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin anti-western insurgent group active in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Dawari pleaded guilty to two counts of immigration fraud, and the judge suspended the sentence in favor of immediate deportation.
November 5, 2014
|Child Exploitation
Talon G. Wright, 38, of Urbana, Illinois, was indicted on two counts of sexually exploiting a minor and one count of possessing child pornography.
November 4, 2014
|Document and Benefit Fraud
Abel Hernandez-Labra, 44, a resident of Hampton, Iowa, was convicted of the following charges: one count of making false statements in a passport application, one count of aggravated identity theft, one count of making a false claim of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, and one count of harboring an illegal alien.
November 4, 2014
|Labor Exploitation
Durable Inc., located in Wheeling, Illinois, manufactures aluminum products for retail and food-service customers.
November 4, 2014
|Enforcement and Removal
Carlos Ivan Rivas-Castro, 22, was removed to El Salvador Wednesday aboard a charter flight coordinated by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Air Operations Unit. Upon arrival, ERO officers turned the fugitive over to representatives from the Salvadoran national police and Interpol.
November 4, 2014
|Document and Benefit Fraud
These two Cabrera-Guzman accomplices were Cesar Mujica-Aranda, aka "Oscar Gomez," 25, a resident of Liberty, Missouri, and Bernardino Bautista-Hernandez, aka "Brujo," 32, a resident of Kansas City, Missouri.
November 3, 2014
|Financial Crimes
Operation Pac Rim, a three-year investigation, began in September 2009. HSI, in collaboration with international partners, seized the equivalent of more than $170 million dollars in U.S. currency and more than $800 million dollars in property worldwide.
November 3, 2014
|Child Exploitation
Donald Record, 52, was sentenced Tuesday to 40 months in federal prison following his guilty plea in May to possessing prepubescent child pornography.
November 3, 2014
|Financial Crimes
Yao Vignon Kpade, 32, of Overland Park, Kansas, pleaded guilty to one count of electronic access device fraud. In his plea, he admitted that while he was working at a Taco Bell in Belton, Missouri, he used the skimmer to obtain information from customers’ credit cards.
November 3, 2014
|Enforcement and Removal
Alisha Johnson, 33, was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison without parole for her actions during the incident.
November 3, 2014
|Child Exploitation
Miguel Angel Macias, 54, of Friendswood, Texas, was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison by U.S. Circuit Judge Gregg Costa on each conviction. In handing down the concurrent sentences, Judge Costa noted the large number of child pornography images attributed to Macias — more than 20,000. Macias was further ordered to serve 20 years of supervised release. He must also register as a sex offender. Macias pleaded guilty to the charges July 23.
November 3, 2014
|Document and Benefit Fraud
Ken Ngombwa, 54, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has been charged with the following crimes: one count of unlawfully procuring or attempting to procure naturalization or U.S. citizenship, one count of procuring citizenship to which he was not entitled, one count of conspiracy to unlawfully procure citizenship, and one count of making a materially false statement to agents of the United States.
November 3, 2014
|Child Exploitation
Colombia is the latest country to join the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement and private sector agencies dedicated to combating online child sexual exploitation and other forms of transnational child sexual exploitation. An official signing-in ceremony was held in Amsterdam, which was attended by the Colombian ambassador to the Netherlands His Excellency Eduardo Pizarro Leon Gomez and General William Rene Salamanca, Director of Special Service, Colombian National Police.
November 3, 2014
|Child Exploitation
Michael Elliot Papac, 47, of Alturas, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez for receiving and distributing child pornography. Upon completion of his prison term, Papac will be subject to a lifetime of supervised release.
November 3, 2014
|Counter Proliferation Investigation Unit
Former U.S. Army Sergeant Dexroy Germaine Hamilton, 31, was sentenced Oct. 31.
November 2, 2014
|Document and Benefit Fraud
Following her prison sentence, Libia Hernandez-Garcia, 60, of Miami, Florida, was also ordered to serve three years on supervised release and ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Christine M. Arguello to pay more than $70,000 in restitution.
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