News Releases and Statements

Angel Landin, a former Selma, Calif., police officer, pleaded guilty Monday to charges of receiving child pornography following an investigation involving U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

John Whitley Richards, 40, of Clovis, Calif., a former substitute teacher and girls' softball coach at Fresno High School, surrendered to authorities Monday. The second Fresno-area man indicted on child pornography charges is Joshua B. Werner, 26, of Fresno, Calif. Werner was charged July 28 with one count of receiving and sharing images of child pornography.

Alonzo Ramos, 40, a criminal defense lawyer practicing in Laredo, Texas, was sentenced on Monday to 30 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $30,000 fine following his April guilty plea to interstate travel in aid of racketeering.

A husband and wife, Yuri and Anneri Izurieta, and their company, Naver Trading Corp., were sentenced on Friday for conspiring to dairy products potentially contaminated with harmful bacteria into the United States, following an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Thirty men, including several with criminal records, were arrested this week during an anti-gang operation conducted by ICE's HSI and the Milwaukee Police Department.

Julian Gonzalez of Mission, Texas, was convicted on Friday of receiving child pornography via the Internet after an investigation conducted by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). ICE HSI discovered 136 child pornographic movies of clearly young children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Miguel Guerrero, a member of the Mexican Mafia who was responsible for numerous acts of violence and narcotics smuggling and distribution, was sentenced on Thursday to 18 years in federal prison. This sentence resulted from an investigation conducted by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with the assistance of federal, state...

A 47-year-old man pleaded guilty on Thursday to a violation of the Arms Export Control Act following a U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigation after he imported an unmanned aerial vehicle into the United States and tried to sell it on eBay.

A former Sacramento retailer is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court here Friday afternoon following his arrest on charges of trafficking in counterfeit goods.

Jose Verduzco of El Paso, Texas was sentenced on July 27 to serve five years in prison, following an investigation conducted by special agents with U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Harrison County Sheriff's Department. During a consensual search of Verduzco's vehicle, deputies discovered five kilograms of cocaine hidden...

Jose Ciro Juarez-Santamaria, a Salvadoran national and MS-13 gang leader, was convicted of prostituting a 12-year-old female with clients throughout northern Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C, following an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

On Thursday, Matthew James Bodden, 25, of Nederland, Texas, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography in a case investigated by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Beaumont Police Department (BPD) and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO).

Seven law enforcement agencies will receive between $100,000 and $500,000 each as a result of a cash seizure of more than $2 million dollars during a marijuana trafficking investigation led by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Joseph Muniz pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court to conspiring to distribute heroin using inbound international flights to Newark Liberty International Airport, following an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) served court orders seizing 16 domain names of websites selling counterfeit goods over the Internet and arrested an upstate New York man for producing and selling counterfeit goods. This operation, dubbed "Shoe Clerk," is the sixth phase of "Operation in Our Sites".

On Thursday, Louis E. Gray, 40, of Fort Worth, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography in a case investigated by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Isabel Wilson a.k.a. Isabel Freeman, a former live-in home healthcare aide for an elderly couple suffering from dementia, was convicted on Wednesday of various identity theft-related crimes. The guilty verdict was a result of a joint investigation by U.S. ICE's Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) and the U.S. Secret Service.

Irene Bamenga, a French citizen and Angolan national in the custody of U.S. ICE, passed away early Wednesday morning at the Albany Memorial Hospital due to an apparent heart condition.

Melvin Taplet, Jr., formerly of Elkton, Md., was sentenced to 10 years in prison on a federal charge stemming from a foiled murder-for-hire plot, following an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The plot was unraveled with Taplet's arrest before anyone was harmed.

One of the nation's largest retailers is partnering with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to strengthen its hiring practices and help ensure it is employing a legal workforce.

"U.S. ICE doesn't take counterfeit drugs lightly. ""It is intellectual property theft,"" said Robert Rutt, director of the National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Coordination Center. ""But these criminals aren't just stealing someone's idea. They are playing with people's lives."""

A federal grand jury has indicted a former Sacramento immigration consultant and 13 other individuals alleging they participated in an elaborate immigration fraud scheme in which foreign nationals from Eastern Europe and Russia paid to enter into sham marriages with locally recruited U.S. citizens.

Matthew J. Merideth, 34, of Amarillo, Texas, formerly of Saginaw, Texas, has been in federal custody since his arrest in October 2010 on a related charge in a federal criminal complaint.

Mauricio Antonio Alvarenga-Vasquez, an MS-13 gang member from El Salvador, was arrested by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the West Orange, N.J. Police Department.

A New Hampshire woman was sentenced in federal court in Concord Monday in a drug smuggling and money laundering case investigated jointly with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).