News Releases and Statements
News Releases and Statements
Ryan Balletto and Patrick Pearmain were charged Monday with conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana and with using a minor to process plants at a large-scale grow operation on property owned by one of the men. Balletto and Pearmain subjected the 15-year-old runaway to sexual abuse during the time they held her captive.
Shem Michahdavid Weissman, aka Brody Gold, 24, pleaded guilty in February to one count of trafficking in counterfeit goods.
Jeremy Blackburn, 33, was sentenced July 18 by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle to 188 months in federal prison. Blackburn has been in custody since he pleaded guilty plea in March.
An officer with ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), Kordell Nesbitt, and two co-conspirators were arrested July 18 and 19 for their roles in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana.
A former Texas elementary school principal, Stephen Anthony Paulsen, used an online social networking application to contact and attempt to meet an individual he believed was a 15-year-old boy for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity. The individual he contacted was actually an undercover law enforcement officer, posing as a minor.
Occasionally, they serviced as many as 40 or more johns in a single day.
Anthony Maurice Cottle, a former Baltimore County firefighter, was sentenced Thursday to 195 months in prison for sexual exploitation of a minor to produce child pornography and possession of child pornography. Cottle sexually abused two minor males to produce visual depictions of the abuse.
Shelton Thomas Bell was indicted Thursday with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. This case was investigated by the FBI's Jacksonville Joint Terrorism Task Force, a multi-agency task force comprised of full-time personnel from several law enforcement agencies, including ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Gary Hardeman, a previously convicted sex offender, faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty Thursday to a charge resulting from a probe by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) that revealed he traveled to Mexico to engage in sexual acts with a 13-year-old girl.
Joseph Ortiz, a Bay Area gang member, has pleaded guilty to 25 federal charges, including three counts of racketeering murder, stemming from a long-term probe by ICE's HSI and several local law enforcement agencies.
A Pittsburgh resident, David Michael Spaid, was sentenced Wednesday to 24 months in prison for transporting stolen nickel from Pennsylvania to Texas. The investigation was conducted by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Vitali Tsishuk, a Belarus national with federal convictions for conspiracy to export defense articles without a license, conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, was deported Wednesday by ICE's Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO).
A former New York Police Department officer, Miguel A. Rodriguez, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conning immigrants seeking driver's licenses and immigration assistance out of thousands of dollars while serving as a police officer and a liaison to the Latino community in the Village of Wappingers Falls.
Two Virginia cigarette retail store owners were each sentenced Friday to 24 months for conspiring to structure more than $10 million in cash transactions for the purpose of preventing banking institutions from reporting those transactions to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
A Greensboro, N.C., man, Muhaned Abbas Mohamed, was sentenced Tuesday to 24 months in prison for conspiracy to smuggle shotguns from the United States and to making a false and fictitious statement in connection with the acquisition of a firearm from a licensed dealer.
Ioseb Kharabadze, a Georgian national convicted of conspiring to traffic firearms in 2009, was deported Friday by officers with ICE's Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) on a flight to Georgia and turned over to Georgian officials.
Lisa Renze of Connellsville, Pa., was arrested and charged Monday with employing, using, persuading, inducing, enticing, and coercing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct.
Michael Dale Irwin pleaded guilty Tuesday to the sexual exploitation of a minor to produce child pornography. A witness reported to Maryland State Police that Irwin had sent an image to her cellular phone documenting his sexual abuse of a prepubescent minor female.
The indictment charges that on Feb. 28, 2007, Ramon Miguel Cerros-Cruz and Alexsi Lopez robbed a Hyattsville, Maryland brothel apartment, armed with knives, and using force and violence. During the robbery, they allegedly bound one of the employees, raped another employee and murdered a third person.
After a four-week trial, a federal jury has convicted four metropolitan Atlanta gang members of committing multiple murders, attempted murders, armed robberies and firearms offenses in Gwinnett and DeKalb counties.
Jeffrey Todd Howard, 34, was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge John D. Rainey. Howard will also be required to serve 10 years of supervised release following completion of the prison term, during which time he will be required to comply with numerous conditions of release designed to limit his contact with children. Howard was convicted after a two-day bench trial before Judge Rainey April 4.
James Carney Ritterhoff, a former police officer who was employed as an armed money courier in Albuquerque when he was arrested in June 2011, was sentenced Monday to 7 1/2 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.
A federal judge sentenced Beatrice Munyenyezi Monday on two counts of procuring citizenship unlawfully. Evidence at trial demonstrated that Munyenyezi participated, aided and abetted in the persecution and murder of Tutsi people during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
GuildMaster, Inc., of Springfield, Mo., pleaded guilty to the felony offense of trafficking in goods with counterfeit marks. Thousands of lamps imported by GuildMaster from China bore counterfeit Underwriters Laboratories (UL) labels.
Peter Picone, 40, of Methuen, has been charged with importing counterfeit semiconductors from China for sale in the United States.
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