News Releases and Statements

The investigation leading to the settlement was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigation's (HSI) Foreign Corruption Investigations Group and the HSI Asset Identification and Removal Group in Miami, with the assistance of HSI Los Angeles and the HSI Attaché offices in Rome, Madrid, London and Paris.

Hsien Tai Tsai, aka Alex Tsai, admitted that he engaged in illegal business transactions involving the export of U.S. origin goods and machinery. Tsai, 69, was arrested in May 2013 in Tallinn, Estonia, and was later extradited to the United States, where he remains in federal custody.

Mario Guadalupe Saenz, 27, of McAllen, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dorina Ramos Oct. 10 where he was formally charged. He was also charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.

Tamara Williams, 36, Kriss Rockson, 45, Jason Chance, 25, Alaia Harrison, 20, and Mickael Knight-Williams, 44, were part of an alleged scheme to use stolen personal identifying information from Saks Fifth Avenue customers to purchase approximately $400,000 in luxury goods from the Midtown flagship store for later resale on the black market.

Daniel Barrera Barrera, aka Loco, 44, was responsible for manufacturing hundreds of tons of cocaine annually in Colombia, trafficking it to various parts of the world, including the United States, and laundering tens of millions of dollars in proceeds from that narcotics trafficking activity.

Joshua Peterson, 45, of Prescott, Arizona, and Steven Grovo, 35, of Shirley, Massachusetts, were accused by a federal grand jury in Montana of promoting the sexual exploitation of children using an international online bulletin board where members advertised, distributed, viewed and received images depicting child pornography.

According to court documents, the indictment charges Eric Alexander Rodriguez, 20, Brandon Troy Robbins, 20, and Christopher David Wix, 21, all active-duty US Army soldiers stationed at Fort Hood.

Richard J. Simone Jr., 23, of Acworth, Georgia, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper in Trenton federal court to traveling across state lines for the purpose of engaging in sexual conduct with a minor. Simone has been in custody since his arrest in September 2013.

The forum and MOU will assist in developing a deeper understanding of the black and grey markets that criminal networks use to traffic goods into Mexico and throughout Latin America.

Authorities arrested Faru Fernandez-Igua, 48, and Monica Evangelista-Laos, 30, late last week after they attempted to enter Canada at Port Huron's Blue Water Bridge.

In 2012, the local officer, who is a part of the HSI Guatemala Transnational Criminal Investigative Unit (TCIU), requested the letter to assist in his entrance into a newly-formed U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-sponsored program that would earn him a bachelor’s degree in police science and a minor in community policing. On Sept. 16, two years after receiving his later of recommendation, Vazquez received his degree from the Universidad del Occidente in Guatemala.

According to information presented in court, the six men were admitted members of ABT, a powerful race-based, statewide organization that operates inside and outside of state and federal prisons throughout Texas and the United States.

Eric C. Opitz, 45, of Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania, was charged with using Medicare Part D benefits to obtain human growth hormone (HGH) and anabolic steroids, which he then sold by advertising on the Internet.

Dmitry Ustinov, 53, of Moscow, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release. In July, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to export the high-tech military technology, in violation of federal law.

Heakyung Kim, 51, of South Korea, was admitted into the United States in March 2014 under the Visa Waiver Program with authorization to remain in the United States until June 25, but she did not depart the United States in accordance with the program.

Robert James Fox, aka Robert Fotti, 65, was escorted to the Pembina, North Dakota, Port of Entry Oct. 6 and turned over to Canadian law enforcement authorities.

David Anthony Lavera, 33, of San Diego, California, had his initial appearance and arraignment Oct. 7 on federal child pornography charges in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

The first U.S. federal law enforcement app designed to seek the public's help with fugitive and unknown suspected child predators is now available for Android smartphones, and in Spanish for both Apple and Android versions.

Joseph D. Maurizio Jr., 69, a priest at the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, was originally charged by criminal complaint and arrested on Sept. 25.

Henry Gill, 44, from South Carolina was found guilty following a two-day trial that started Oct.5.

Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, a U.S. citizen from Bolingbrook, Illinois, was charged with attempting to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), aka the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

According to the indictment, the defendants conspired to smuggle at least 30 known shipments, totaling about 100,000 pills, from China to Texas. As alleged in the indictment, the shipments contained bogus imitations of Xanax, Valium, sibutramine, Cialis, Viagra and Stilnox (which is marketed in the United States as Ambien). None of the pills seized and tested were legitimate; all either contained incorrect active ingredients or were sub-potent.

Stanley Zdon III, 28, of Tuckerton, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty to the charge in March. As part of his guilty plea, Zdon admitted that from December 2012 to October 2013 he conspired to produce child pornography with Jonathan Johnson, the administrator of the enterprise in Abita Springs.