News Releases and Statements

More than 200 alleged transnational criminal street gang members and associates were arrested in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras during a 60-day enforcement operation spearheaded by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Central American law enforcement.

Robin Michael Gattis, a 20-year-old Wasilla man who pleaded guilty Friday to a federal drug conspiracy charge, now faces up to 20 years in federal prison for leading a methylone production and distribution ring linked to at least one death.

Seven arrests have been made in a coordinated operation spanning several states, related to the unsealing of a 17-count indictment and criminal complaint involving Gallant Pharma Itnl Inc., an allegedly unlicensed company that is accused of distributing misbranded prescription drugs from its HQ in Crystal City and an office in Springfield.

ICE protects the United States by promoting homeland security and public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws governing border control, customs, trade and immigration.

According to an announcement Friday by Arizona's attorney general, Juan Manuel Alvarado-Fajardo and Neriah Kidebar Morin-Alvarado admitted in a plea agreement they transported marijuana in order to sell it and laundered their drug proceeds by purchasing Sierra Vista-area properties.

Michael Brandan Griffith was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison Aug. 7 by U.S. District Judge Marcia Crone. Griffith had pleaded guilty April 9 to possessing material involving the sexual exploitation of children.

Osvaldo Pineda Bonilla, a Mexican national and career criminal who was removed from the United States four times since 1997, was deported Wednesday by ICE's Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO).

According to investigators, Tracie Jones Mathis, 47, and her co-conspirators agreed to defraud the United States by engaging in scheme to file false income tax forms and receive payment from fraudulent claims made on those forms.

Alejandro Flores, 40, was repatriated to La Paz, Bolivia, Aug. 6 via commercial aircraft, and accompanied by two ERO enforcement officers.

Yester Ayala, 22, aka Freeway and Daddy Yankee, of Washington; Noe Machado-Erazo, 30 aka Gallo of Wheaton, Md.; and Jose Martinez-Amaya, 26, aka Crimen of Brentwood, Md., were each found guilty in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.

The 11-count indictment, was unsealed Aug. 6 upon the arrest of Jamal Khattab, 49, of Katy, and Fayez Al-Jabri, 45, of Chicago, Ill. Khattab will appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Johnson in Houston Wednesday.

In April, Albert Silva Hernandez, Jr., 44, of Las Vegas, was convicted of eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Clark County School District.

The company is also a contract supplier for ICE personnel service weapons and the first New Hampshire company to become an IMAGE partner.

Larry James Kerfoot must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

KNPA senior delegates traveled to Washington and met with HSI officials at ICE's headquarters to sign the document.

Billymir Mancilla-Brevichet, 28, of Oakland, Calif., was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison, followed by 4 years of supervised release, and ordered to forfeit $278,618. Co-conspirators Chamron Thach, 30, of Silver Spring, Md., and Carlos Salvador Escobar, 30, of Arlington, Va., were sentenced to 8 years and 3 years, respectively.

The photos are believed to have been taken sometime in April 2013.

Billy Wayne Johnson, 55, of Scurry, Texas, has been in custody since his arrest in February 2013 on a related federal criminal complaint. This sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

Lelis Rodriguez, a Honduran national who has been in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since July 22, passed away Wednesday, July 31, at Valley Baptist Medical Center (VBMC) in Harlingen, Texas from a cerebral hemorrhage.

ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents, working jointly with officers of the Puerto Rico Crimes Against Children Task Force (PRCACTF), arrested two individuals on child exploitation charges Tuesday in the municipalities of Arroyo and Mayaguez.

Marcus Gabriel Henderson, 33, is charged with production and attempted production of child pornography, involving the defendant's secretly videotaping female victims in the bathrooms of his home.

John W. Vandermeer, 62, of Albuquerque, was arrested Dec. 4, 2012 on a criminal complaint alleging he received and possessed child pornography in Bernalillo County, N.M., between January 2011 and November 2012.

Between December 2011 and July 2012, Robert Marzola sexually abused a minor male at his home, and he produced images of himself and the minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Marzola saved the images on his laptop and told the boy not to tell anyone about their conduct, which Marzola described to the boy as a game.

On May 1, the FBI, through another investigation, received information that Ramos was living in Harrisonburg and contacted the ERO Washington Field Office.

Evelyn Sineneng-Smith, 66, was indicted by a federal grand jury July 14, 2010.