News Releases and Statements

Mark James Williams was charged and convicted for possessing child pornography, which he attempted to delete from his computer the day before he left for a cruise to Costa Rica to smuggle cocaine.

A Jamaican man, Damion St. Patrick Baston, was arrested Tuesday in New York for his role in a sex trafficking operation.

Siarhei Baltutski, aka Sergey Boltutskiy, 41, must also pay a $3,000 fine, $300 special assessment and serve three years of supervised release.

Philip Chaohui HE, aka Philip Hope, was residing in Oakland, Calif., at the time of his arrest. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver Dec. 15, 2011.

98 percent of the agency's total removals were convicted criminals, recent border crossers, illegal re-entrants or those previously removed by ICE, in line with agency's enforcement priorities.

The crude, hand-dug tunnel is approximately 52 feet long and roughly two feet wide by three feet tall, with some wood shoring. It runs from the shed to a nearby underground sewage line that ultimately crosses the international boundary.

Joel Monfort, 53, was transported via an ICE Air Operations charter aircraft, escorted by ERO officers, to the Port-au-Prince International Airport in Haiti.

Hector Daniel Villanueva-Cortes, aka Muertito, a Honduran national residing in Hyattsville, Md., was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in prison for illegal re-entry after having been deported from the United States.

Five men in southern Iowa were sentenced recently in separate prosecutions to nearly 44 years in prison combined for their unrelated roles in trading online child pornography.

Carlos Santiago Garcia posed online under the pseudonym Xavier Constatinos. He also purported to be a minor female on Facebook to lure and recruit another minor female victim to meet him to travel out of state to engage in sexual acts.

Rudy Martinez, 40, fell under suspicion following his involvement in a violent street altercation in the Beach Flats neighborhood of Santa Cruz in July of last year. When investigators searched his residence in July 2012, they discovered methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine, along with an assortment of scales and packaging materials.

Stephen Wayne Sudduth, 38, of Sealy, Texas, was sentenced to 360 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas. Sudduth will receive credit for the more than three years he has been in federal custody since his arrest.

Within the past two months, special agents with ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have locally seized almost 9,000 items of counterfeit merchandise valued at nearly $3.5 million during 'Operation Holiday Hoax.'

'John Doe' was arrested Monday evening at a residence near Jonesboro after HSI received nearly 50 tips from the public via the HSI Tip Line.

Rita Law is suspected of operating a prostitution ring out of three massage parlors in northwest Indiana.

This historical document was seized by ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents in Wilmington, Del., following an extensive investigation.

Paul Harvilicz, 62, of Copperas Cove, Texas, has been in custody since he was arrested in Waco, Texas, March 27 on related charges. Harvilicz pleaded guilty in August to a superseding indictment charging one count of attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor.

U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay remanded Travis Olt, 40, of Irving, Texas, who had been released on bond, into custody.

Rex D. McBride, 44, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John D. Rainey to 63 months in federal prison to be followed by 10 years of supervised release. McBride pleaded guilty to the charges Sept. 18.

According to the criminal complaint, Leo De la Rosa-Meran, 45, engaged in sexually explicit telephone conversations with two 17-year-old female minors, both of whom he met through his church.

In less than two years, the task force has seized more than $4.6 million from criminal organizations.

Christopher Allen Morace, 31, of Clinton, pleaded guilty Sept. 26 to possessing child pornography. HSI special agents searched his Hinds County residence May 31, 2012, and seized an external hard drive that included child pornography.

An immigration attorney, Kiran Dewan, pleaded guilty to bribery and one of his clients also pleaded guilty to immigration fraud on Dec. 13.

'John Doe' is believed to be approximately 18 to 20 years old, has pale skin with straight dark-brown hair over the ears, and light blue or green eyes.

David Wayne Land, 43, was discovered distributing 2 video files that portrayed minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.