News Releases and Statements

Two Baltimore warehouse owners, Gregg Lee Purbaugh and Kenneth Trainum, pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport stolen nickel briquettes stored next to their warehouse, which had been imported through the Port of Baltimore, following an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

A Marietta, Ga., woman, Luz Gutierrez, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to entice individuals to cross state lines to engage in prostitution and to encourage and induce aliens to reside unlawfully in the United States, following an investigation by ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the FBI and the Cobb County Police Department.

Charles Roy Clark, 59, of Fairfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb. According to court documents, an undercover federal agent began monitoring a website known for trading child pornography. During a visit to the "chat" portion of the website, the agent noticed that many of the users were uploading and trading child pornography images. Clark was identified as a suspect.

Women play a significant role in law enforcement, and for the past six years, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has helped female law enforcement officers in southern California promote training and camaraderie at the annual San Diego Women in Law Enforcement Firearms Training Conference and Pistol Invitational.

Clifford Ralph Blair was sentenced Friday to 12 years and seven months in federal prison, following his guilty plea in January 2012 to one count of receiving child pornography.

Special agents with ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Sunday seized nearly 20,000 counterfeit items with a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of nearly $900,000, at the local Fox Plaza flea market.

Michael Lynn Wieland was sentenced Friday in federal court to 24 years in federal prison for possessing and receiving child pornography, the longest sentence in the state's history for this type of crime. Examination of Wieland's seized electronic media revealed more than 315,000 images depicting the graphic sexual abuse of children.

Donald Strickland, of Hammond, Ind., was sentenced April 19 by U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber, Northern District of Illinois, to 75 months in federal prison without parole.

Brian David Clayworth has been sentenced to four years in prison for possession of child pornography following a probe by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Approximately 7,000 images and 200 videos were found on Clayworth's desktop computer, and another 600 images and 25 videos were found on his laptop computer.

Jose Mario Islas-Andrade, a Mexican national wanted in his native country for allegedly kidnapping a Mexican citizen and attempting to murder a Mexican police officer, was turned over to Mexican law enforcement authorities late Thursday afternoon by special agents from ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Kenneth Kassab of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., was taken into custody without incident Thursday on charges related to the unlawful transportation of explosives and possession of explosives by a convicted felon. He is suspected of possessing more than two tons of bomb-making materials.

An indictment was unsealed Thursday against five members or associates of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) street gang on racketeering, drug trafficking and firearms violations.

Larry Murphy of Antioch, Tenn., was charged in a federal complaint Thursday with accepting bribes in relation to his employment as a Tennessee driver's license examiner. The federal bribery charges follow a joint investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the FBI and the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

Juan Arrazolo of St. Peter, Minn., made his initial appearance in federal court Thursday to answer charges of transporting and harboring illegal aliens for a scheme to supply cheap labor to large local food-producing farms.

On April 16, Jesus Blas-Perea of Riverdale, Md., was arrested by HSI Baltimore special agents and PGPD officers and detectives on a state felony arrest warrant issued by Harris County, Texas for first degree murder.

"Mahendar ""Mike"" Singh was sentenced Thursday to nine years in federal prison on charges stemming from a probe by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the FBI that linked him to a scheme to sex traffic teenage girls. Singh admitted to recruiting teenage girls to provide sex services in exchange for money and drugs..."

An antiquities dealer, Mousa Khouli, pleaded guilty Wednesday to smuggling Egyptian cultural property into the United States and making a false statement to law enforcement authorities.

Christopher David Johnson of Winter Haven, Fla., was sentenced in federal court Thursday for his participation in an interstate cocaine distribution operation following an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Two defendants were charged Wednesday with smuggling a group of illegal aliens from Houston to Los Angeles that left one of the aliens dead of lobar pneumonia in a ditch at a rest stop outside Vega, Texas.

A 400-year-old masterpiece work of art taken illegally from its owners in Nazi-occupied France during World War II was returned today to the family from which it was stolen more than 70 years ago.

Xiang Li, 35, and Chun Yan Li, 33, of Chengdu, China, have been charged by a federal grand jury. Xiang Li was arrested by HSI special agents June 7, 2011, in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. Chun Yan Li remains an at-large fugitive in Chengdu.

Five of the six people arrested last week following the fatal rollover in Palmview, Texas, made their initial court appearances Tuesday and were ordered detained pending further criminal proceedings, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson, Southern District of Texas.

A Texas man was sentenced to 40 months in prison Wednesday following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Gulf Coast Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST), the FBI and the Jackson County Sheriff's Department in Mississippi.

Nine individuals are facing federal charges involving conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance following an investigation by ICE's HSI, MBN, the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force and the Hancock County Sheriff's Office.

ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents arrested Victor M. Rivera-Morales in San Juan Friday for production of child pornography after he harassed a 15-year-old female to send him naked photos of herself via text messages. Rivera-Morales' wife discovered the photos on his cell phone and recognized the female in the pictures.