News Releases and Statements

According to court documents and statements made at the defendant’s plea hearing, in July 2011, Victor Manuel Contreras, 29, of Manassas, Virginia, engaged in chats via Facebook with a minor female.

Marcus Taylor, 41, of Sicklerville, pleaded guilty Thursday to distributing and possessing with intent to distribute oxycodone before U.S. District Judge Renee Marie Bumb.

James Quinn, 73, of Surrey, United Kingdom, and his two companies – one in the United Kingdom and one in Switzerland – face five felony counts in U.S. district court. They are charged with conspiracy, importation contrary to law, two counts of introduction of misbranded drugs into interstate commerce and unlicensed medical wholesaling.

Jose Hernandez-Tirado, 34, of Brodheadsville, was arrested on July 2, 2013 at his residence, and charged with distributing the drugs during 2013.

Victor Jerome Reza, 53, was arrested Tuesday at his home by HSI special agents assigned to HSI's Cyber Crimes Group, who have been investigating him since January.

The individuals arrested in Quetzaltenango were: Antonio Rolando Chavez Paxtor, Maricela Isabel Gonzalez Hernandez, Eliseo Alvarado Gonzalez, Marciano Alvarado Gonzalez, Antonio Adonias Gonzalez Hernandez, Genaro Elias Jimenez and Pablo Arnoldo Gomez-Gonzalez. Two other members of this organization were arrested in Mexican territory: Douglas Ivan Aguilar-Juarez and Milton Rocael Sebastian Cardona.

HSI special agents arrested Jonathan E. Clemente-Semidey, 27, after a referral from the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit led to an investigation that revealed that a person with Clemente-Semidey's computer IP address logged onto the Internet and shared child pornography on numerous occasions through Ares, a peer to peer file sharing application.

The indictment, returned late Wednesday, charges Monica Adriana Zacatlan-Ramirez, 19, of Urbana, Illinois; Eduardo Guerrero Cortez, 25, of Texas; and Jarbey Emerson Reyes-Villalobos, 18, of Champaign, Illinois, with conspiring to provide false statements to law enforcement to conceal that the reported kidnapping was actually a hoax.

Erik Leroy Clark, 35, of Joplin, Missouri, was charged via criminal complaint with one count of attempting to entice a minor for illicit sexual activity.

Ronald Lee Blake, 45, faces a charge involving foreign or interstate travel for prostitution. Maria Blake was arrested June 24, 2014.

Hayatullah Dawari, 62, an Afghanistan citizen, has alleged ties to Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, an anti-western insurgent group active in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Leonardo Burgos Espinal, 42, most recently residing in Springfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy S. Hillman to time served of 14 months.

All told, the enforcement actions resulted in the seizure of thousands of individual items bearing the names of more than 20 designer brands, including UGG boots, Michael Kors purses, Beats by Dre headphones, Otterbox and LifeProof cell phone cases and NFL jerseys.

As of July 8, 966,333 international students were enrolled in nearly 9,000 U.S. schools using an F (academic) or M (vocational) visa. This marks a nearly five percent decrease from April, primarily due to graduation rates, but an eight percent increase when compared to July 2013.

Alberto Lira-Quintero, aka Lamberto Armenta Rivera, 48, was turned over to Mexican authorities by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

Paul Carter, 44, aka "Pimpin' Paul" and David Moore, 46, aka "King David," both of Milwaukee, were each previously indicted. Carter was indicted on two counts of sex trafficking and Moore was indicted for sex trafficking, conspiracy and solicitation of a crime of violence.

Paul Michael Barbour, 33, who previously worked for Cypress-based Kids Artistic Review (KAR), is scheduled to be sentenced October 20, 2014. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.

Juan Carlos Alvarez, 34, of Egg Harbor Township, pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree distribution of child pornography and third-degree possession of more than 100 files of child pornography before Superior Court Judge Bernard E. DeLury Jr.

The HER​O​ Child-Rescue Corps internship is a private-public partnership between the National Association to Protect Children (PROTECT), HSI and U.S. Special Operations Command, in which carefully selected veterans are trained in digital forensics and child exploitation work and then embedded in HSI field offices around the country.

The SEVIS 6.17 release includes a name standardization impact report, which provides school and exchange visitor program officials with a list of names that do not meet the naming standards that SEVP plans to implement in April 2015. Names with special characters, non-Roman alphanumeric characters and extra spaces will not meet the new standards.

Matthew C. Harbin, 28, of Arab, Alabama, is a convicted felon who pleaded guilty in 2009 to state charges of transmitting obscene material to a minor. He is the latest fugitive to be profiled on the ICE smartphone app, seeking public tips on at-large and unknown child predator suspects.

Alex Martinez, 41, of Indianapolis, was sentenced to 39 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt for making false statements to purchase firearms, and then unlawfully exporting those firearms from the United States to Honduras.

On July 6, Garcia-Huezo became ill and was immediately transferred from ICE custody to the Laredo Medical Center (LMC). LMC hospital staff initially diagnosed him with cardiac arrest. A medical examiner will review the case regarding the cause of death.

Rudy Alberto Gonzalez Rocha, 29, and his brother, Eloy Damian Gonzalez Rocha, 33, both of Jalisco, Mexico, were previously convicted in federal court of being aliens in possession of firearms.

On Jan. 3, 2012, HSI New York and HSI Attaché Rome arrested Arnold Peter Weiss, 54, at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. At the time of his arrest, Weiss, a Rhode Island resident, believed himself to be in possession of two stolen dekadrachma from Agrigento, Sicily. Under Italian law, the removal of any artifacts discovered in the region after 1909 is prohibited by the country's cultural heritage and protection laws. Weiss, however, believed the stolen coins to be worth millions of dollars, and planned to trade them at a New York auction.