News Releases and Statements
News Releases and Statements
Peter Beichl was sentenced to 210 months in federal prison Monday after pleading guilty to charges related to the sexual exploitation of a child. Beichl was arrested in Cleveland by ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents in March 2011 after he flew from Germany to have sex with an 11-year-old girl.
Michael Karolus was sentenced on Monday to 10 years in prison for possessing child pornography. In March 2010, an ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent received a tip from the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children regarding a sexually explicit posting made on Craigslist. The post was traced to Karolus' home in Portland.
To mark the official beginning of the online holiday shopping season, known as Cyber Monday, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the IPR Center, the Department of Justice and the FBI Washington Field Office have seized 150 website domain names that were illegally selling and distributing counterfeit merchandise.
Seven individuals have been charged in federal court with drug smuggling following the discovery Tuesday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers of more than nine tons of marijuana inside a tractor trailer attempting to enter the United States at the Otay Mesa Commercial Port of Entry Tuesday.
In addition, Christopher T. King, 34, of Fort Worth, who has been in federal custody since his arrest in mid-July 2011, was ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release following his release from prison. This sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldana of the Northern District of Texas.
Chad Salvatore, 38, of Alden, N.Y., is charged in the first five counts of the indictment with distributing child pornography on five separate occasions between Dec. 2, 2010, and Dec. 15, 2010. The next two counts of the indictment charge the defendant with receipt of child pornography between June 1, 2010 and July 11, 2010.
The defendants were involved in schemes that solicited and accepted millions of dollars in kickbacks from contractors between 2000 and 2009 in connection with construction projects in Manhattan, the Bronx and Westchester County.
Hak Tung Lam, 44, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to encourage and induce aliens to illegally enter and reside in the United States.
Isabel Wilson served as the couples' live-in home healthcare aide. She opened several credit cards in the couples' names.
Last week, ICE and U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) -- in coordination with the Colombian National Police -- held a conference to promote the exchange of knowledge and skills in support of joint international efforts to combat transnational criminal organizations.
During Operation Threats Against the Community, a four-day targeted enforcement operation in and around Boston that ended Monday, ICE's Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) officers arrested 53 convicted criminal aliens.
A Miami Gardens, Fla., woman, Judith Moody, was sentenced Monday to more than eight years in prison after she pleaded guilty to charges of smuggling illegal aliens into the United States following an investigation led by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Miami.
Two Mexican nationals were sentenced Monday to 10 and seven years in jail respectively for harboring illegal aliens for profit and aiding and abetting and transporting illegal aliens for profit, following an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) offices in Washington, D.C., and Phoenix.
A citizen of the Dominican Republic was sentenced Friday to 200 months in prison for his participation in a drug trafficking operation. A case initiated in 2006 revealed the organization used corrupt longshoremen to smuggle more than 150 kilograms of cocaine from Ecuador into the United States through New York.
North Texas Boy Scout den leader and karate instructor arrested on federal child pornography offense
Timothy Weirich, a Boy Scout den leader from Arlington, Texas, was arrested Thursday on a federal child pornography charge. While the investigation is ongoing, at this time ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) notes that it is unaware of any child molestation.
The investigation began when the Beaumont Police Department, using peer-2-peer software, discovered an IP address registered to Donald Wayne Waters, 44, of Winnie, Texas, sharing images and videos of child pornography.
Kent Oman of Des Moines, Iowa, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Oman admitted that between Jan. 31, 2009 and Nov. 7, 2010, he knowingly and intentionally used a hidden camera to produce videos of a minor male using a bathroom on 15 to 20 separate occasions.
More than 70 countries participated in the pilot program, which took place from Nov. 1, 2010 to April 30, 2011.
As part of his plea agreement, Thomas Leroy Griffin, Jr., 32, 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 (SORNA).
Michael S. Starowicz, 39, faces a statutory maximum statutory sentence of not less than five years or more than 20 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine per count. Starowicz, who remains in custody, could also be sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release. Sentencing is set for March 2 before Judge McBryde.
Johnathon Caudill responded to a posting by an undercover Fort Worth Police officer on Dallas' Craigslist advertising his girlfriend's minor daughters. Caudill informed the undercover officer that he wanted the girls to wear diapers during sessions of deviant sexual intercourse. After his arrest, condoms, diapers and a $100 bill were in his car.
The criminal enterprise, known as the Gulf Cartel, was headquartered in Matamoros, Mexico, and allegedly imports, warehouses, transports and distributes tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States.
"A Texas Mexican Mafia gang member, Valdomero ""Oso"" Hernandez, was sentenced on Thursday to 25 years in federal prison for conspiracy to conduct the affairs of racketeering. An investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) revealed that members of the EME were responsible for numerous violent acts..."
The Lowell Housing Authority has signed the state's first-ever agreement between a local housing authority and ICE to strengthen hiring practices and to combat the unlawful employment of illegal aliens.
Gary Mack Johnson, who pleaded guilty in April to one count of transporting and shipping child pornography, was sentenced Thursday to 210 months in federal prison. Law enforcement investigations showed Johnson had chatted online about molesting children dating back to 2004, and had distributed child pornography on the Web using several methods.
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