News Releases and Statements

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Monday announced the appointment of a longtime special agent previously based in Georgia to head the agency's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Francisco office.

Christopher Brown, 42, was taken into custody Friday in a local shopping center parking lot by investigators assigned to the Orange County Child Exploitation Task Force (OCCETF), including special agents with ICE HSI and deputies with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

Antonio Garcia-Villa (Garcia), 46, pleaded guilty to conspiring to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana and possessing firearms in furtherance of a large-scale cultivation operation.

Oscar Avila-Osorio, 24, is wanted in his home country for raping a minor and was the subject of an Interpol notice.

On Sept. 23, U.S. District Judge Alia Moses sentenced Roberto Reyna, 25, from Uvalde, Texas, to 57 months in federal prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. Reyna pleaded guilty to the charge Jan. 22.

Octavio Cesar Sana, a Spanish national with legal U.S. residency, admitted in a plea agreement that he sold at least $3.2 million worth of Chinese-made counterfeit cell phone parts through businesses he operated since 2007—including a website called “Flexqueen.com.”

Richard Adam Hall, 53, was sentenced following an investigation by ICE's HSI, the Chatham County District Attorney’s Office, the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office, the Savannah-Chatham Metro Police Department and Armstrong State University’s Police Department.

The panel discussion, entitled “The Cyber Threat – How Industry and Law Enforcement Can Work Together,” was part of the 2015 Department of Justice Cybersecurity Summit, hosted by the U.S. Attorneys’ Office for the Northern District of Alabama.

Joseph T. Palermo, 33, of Oak Lawn, Illinois, imported anabolic steroids, human growth hormones and pharmaceuticals from outside the United States for about five years, according to a federal criminal complaint and affidavit. According to these charges, the shipments from China arrived in the form of raw liquid or powder, which Palermo manufactured into usable steroids and distributed to large-scale dealers in the Chicago area.

Martin Margarito-Casimiro, 29, of Camargo, Mexico, was sentenced Sept. 24 by U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez to 480 months in federal prison sentence and a $25,000 fine.

A Mexican national and a West Texas man were sentenced Thursday to lengthy federal prison terms for narcotics trafficking.

Christina Cortez, 38, of Corpus Christi, and Matthew Harbin, 29, a convicted sex offender from Alabama and a fugitive who lived in Brownsville, Texas, both pleaded guilty Sept. 23 to producing child pornography. The pleas were accepted by Senior U.S. District Judge Hayden Head.

As part of the PSA campaign, Talk 760 WJR-AM will air a 60-second PSA, which features HSI Detroit Special Agent in Charge Marlon Miller discussing some of the harmful side effects of synthetic drugs.

Michael Edwin Harding, 27, of Port St. Lucie, was charged with receiving and distributing material involving sexual exploitation of minors and with possession of child pornography.

The indictment alleges that from April to August, Terrence J. O’Connor, 52, of Urbana, Illinois, received and possessed images and videos of minors under the age of 12 engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

“I credit the hours of training and experience as the reason I was able to focus without thinking about my own safety,” said Vettori.

Bergeron said HSI knows the importance of redundant and multiple methods of communication and of being self-contained. “My motto is: prepare for the worst; pray for the best,” said Bergeron.

Federal law enforcement authorities announced Wednesday the seizure of 363 pounds of cocaine concealed in cases of Costa Rican pumpkins and squash at the Port of Philadelphia.

Johnathan Brent Wulf, 61, posted an ad on Craigslist, beginning a conversation with an undercover HSI special agent. Using both the phone and the Internet, Wulf expressed his desire to have sex with the agent’s fictional 12-year-old stepdaughter.

Joseph D. Maurizio Jr., 70, of Central City, Pennsylvania, was convicted of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, possession of child pornography and international money laundering.

Farouk Mohamed Aldaylam, 28, of Queens Village, New York, Fahd Hamood Aljahaf, 37, of Bronx, New York, Galal Hameed Kassim, 29, and Muneer Kaid Khaled, 25, both of Brooklyn, New York, Amir Mohamed Alsaidi, 37, of Baltimore, Maryland, and Mohamed Abdo Elbarati, 30, of Winchester, Virginia, are alleged to have conspired to profit from the unlawful sale of contraband cigarettes.

Malia Arciero, 34, appeared Tuesday before Chief U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Molloway. In January, a federal grand jury convicted Arciero of four counts of intentionally distributing 50 or more grams of methamphetamine.

Anthony Nelson, 33, from Tyler, pleaded guilty Nov. 10, 2014 to transporting minors and was sentenced Sept. 22 to 276 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Michael H. Schneider.

U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen sentenced Miguel Echevarria-Guizar, 22, from Mexico to 36 months in federal prison. His father Miguel Echevarria-Zuniga, 51, also from Mexico, was sentenced in August to serve 42 months for the marijuana charge and for re-entering the United States after having been deported.

Jose Luis Montoya-Salazar, aka Rafael Salazar-Sanchez (Montoya), 43, a native and citizen of Mexico, was sentenced for conspiring to import and distribute more than 84 pounds of cocaine.