News Releases and Statements

Dale Wray Fulford, of Slaton, Texas, faces a statutory penalty of not less than 15 years or more than 30 years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine. Judge Cummings ordered a presentence investigation report with a sentencing date to be set after that report is completed.

Less than a week before the start of his trial last summer, Christian James Gieseke, 39, from Garland, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography.

Baltazar Torres-Castorena, a Mexican man wanted in his native country for rape, was deported Thursday by officers with ICE's Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO).

Three alleged members of an international cybercrime, money laundering and identity theft conspiracy were indicted on federal charges Monday for using information hacked from customer accounts at more than a dozen banks, brokerage firms, payroll processing companies and government agencies in an attempt to steal at least $15 million from Americans.

Abraham DeLuna-Esparza, a convicted felon who was previously deported to Mexico as an aggravated felon, was sentenced Friday to 6 1/2 years in federal prison for illegally re-entering the United States and drug possession.

A group of 24 Mexican Customs officers completed a rigorous 10-week training program Friday modeled on ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Training Program to prepare them to more effectively fight crime along the southern border and within Mexico.

U.S. authorities are investigating a drug smuggling incident in the Laguna Mountains east of San Diego early Friday morning involving an ultralight aircraft carrying approximately 250 pounds of marijuana that crashed into a dead oak tree.

A federal jury convicted Jean Claude Roy, aka Dredd the Don and Dreddy, March 19 of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, three counts of interstate transportation for prostitution, and witness and evidence tampering.

"Recently ICE unveiled a temporary exhibit at the Crime Museum in Washington, D.C. entitled ""Securing the Homeland - ICE."" Part of this exhibit includes artifacts from 9/11 in a display dedicated to that pivotal moment in history for both the nation and ICE."

Following his 17-year prison sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Raymond P. Moore also ordered James Boblett, 34, of Grand Junction, Colo., to serve 10 years on supervised release. The defendant appeared at the sentencing hearing in custody, and was remanded at its conclusion.

Jason Lee Villasana, 37, of Del Rio, Texas, was sentenced to 180 months imprisonment for receiving and distributing child pornography, and possessing an unregistered firearm. The judge also ordered Villasana to serve a 10-year term of supervised release. Villasana pleaded guilty to the charges Aug. 21, 2013.

Travis J. Russ, 32, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was sentenced Tuesday for his leadership role in a car break-in and bank fraud crew that stole more than a million dollars in the five years it was in operation.

Robert Mucha, 58, of Newton, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William H. Walls in Newark to one count of enticing a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity and one count of receiving child pornography. Judge Walls imposed the sentence Wednesday in federal court.

HSI received information indicating that a large amount of marijuana was being concealed inside the house on Hachar Lane. When special agents arrived at the residence they determined that the marijuana was left there for a later pickup.

While on a routine patrol in the Caribbean Sea March 16, the crew of a Coast Guard maritime patrol aircraft detected a 25-foot go-fast vessel with two outboard engines and two subjects onboard traveling northwest without navigation lights approximately 115 nautical miles southeast of Vieques.

Nazmul Maksud Murad, 43, is accused of participating in a 1989 grenade attack at the home of Sheikh Hasina, who was the head of a rival political party at that time. Hasina is currently the prime minister of Bangladesh.

The three-day operation, which concluded Sunday, was conducted by ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) as part of the agency's commitment to prioritize the removal of criminal aliens and egregious immigration violators.

Based on investigative clues in the photos, HSI special agents believe that this person may now live in, or had visited, north Texas at the time these photos were taken sometime in April 2013.

Court evidence showed that Ricardo Guerrero, 55, of Mathis, was the leader of the methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine conspiracies, which existed from 2009 through his arrest on Sept. 26, 2013.

Marisol Valdez, 27, from Eagle Pass, Texas, was sentenced March 18 to 144 months in prison for conspiracy to import heroin. The judge also ordered Valdez to serve five years of supervised release and pay a $3000.00 fine. Valdez pleaded guilty to the charge July 10, 2013.

Fourteen men operating a child pornography website on the Darknet's Onion Router, also known as Tor, have been arrested and charged as part of a conspiracy to operate a child exploitation enterprise, following an extensive international investigation by ICE's HSI and USPIS.

Bassam Kiriaki, an accountant with offices located in Pawtucket, R.I., pleaded guilty Monday to participating in a conspiracy which trafficked $1.2 million in contraband cigarettes into Rhode Island from Virginia.

A Dade City middle school teacher, David Wendel Thompson, was arrested Friday for using Facebook to attempt to knowingly persuade two minor females from Belize to engage in sexually explicit conduct.

Victor Duane Smith, 59, initially came under law enforcement scrutiny in July 2013 when he used the Fresno County Public Library's public wireless system to view child pornography through an Internet file-sharing program.