News Releases and Statements

9 additional Indiana counties to benefit from ICE program to enhance identification and removal of criminal aliens

Diego Cortez-Angel was a cell leader for a deadly criminal organization based in Mexico that produced high-quality false identification cards to illegal aliens. The group used brutal violence to eliminate rivals, protect its turf, and enforce discipline against its own members.

Taesan Won, 37, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to harboring illegal aliens for private financial gain for his business providing outcall companionship service to male customers at Annandale, Va. businesses such as karaoke clubs and bars, following an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Puerto Rico joins 42 other states to benefit from ICE program to enhance identification and removal of aliens

U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents seized 15 luxury watches with an approximate market value of $1 million and 16 classic and collection cars, with an approximately value of $2.2 million, this morning from members of the Jose Figueroa-Agosto - aka Junior Capsula - drug trafficking organization.

"In a coordinated operation on Tuesday dubbed Operation ""Kool Aid,"" about 100 city, county and federal law enforcement officers executed multiple federal arrest and search warrants resulting in charges against 17 defendants in separate complaints alleging two conspiracies to possess and distribute methamphetamine."

Angel Gomez, 46, a native of the Dominican Republic, was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison for his role in smuggling cocaine and heroin through the Port of Savannah. In March of 2010, Georgia Ports Authority Police became aware of three men, disguised as longshoremen who had disembarked the M/V Cosco Boston, a Chinese merchant vessel.

Akeem R. Gumbs was charged on Thursday for possession and production of child pornography and with 24 local counts of aggravated first degree rape of a person under 13 years old, following an investigation by U.S. ICE's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department.

Joseph Yannai was found guilty of forced labor and attempted forced labor on Friday following an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). He enticed women to travel to the United States from abroad so that he could commit sex crimes against them.

Robert Wesley Harden, 22, of Ft. Pierce, Fla., was sentenced on Monday to 30 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for production of child pornography and sexually enticing minors, following an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Martin County Sheriff's Office (MCSO).

ICE Homeland Security Investigations special agents protect the United States against terrorists and criminal organizations.

Darwin Melgar Escobar, 23, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for participating in the affairs of the violent street gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) through a pattern of racketeering activity (RICO), and for possessing a firearm as an illegal alien. This sentence follows an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Mohammad Reza Vaghari was sentenced Friday in a scheme to ship items from the United States to Iran, in violation of U.S. sanctions imposed on that country. Vaghari operated in the United States through a Pennsylvania corporation called Saamen Company, purchasing items from other American companies and exporting the items to co-conspirators...

Paid a woman to marry him in order to get status as permanent resident alien.

Randall J. Weitzel, Edwood Brodtmann, Jr., and Agustin Arcadia pled guilty in federal court Friday to charges related to employing illegal aliens at federal and private projects on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. One of the locations where Illegal alien laborers associated with Weitzel worked included the courthouse where the guilty pleas were entered.

Two alleged members of the violent transnational street gang MS-13 were indicted on federal gun charges Friday following their arrest in a case being investigated jointly by the Lynn Police Department, U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Bureau of ATF and other law enforcement partners.

Wesley William Brandt, 46, of Davenport, Fla., pleaded guilty today in federal court to three counts of production of child pornography, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents in Tampa.

A federal grand jury indictment was unsealed Friday in New Haven charging Thomas E. Stickle, 39, formerly of Torrington, Conn., and Hartford, Conn., with receiving, possessing and distributing child pornography in a case investigated by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Connecticut State Police.

More than 150 federal, state, and local law enforcement officers served search and arrest warrants Thursday morning at locations in the Southern California communities of Riverside and Fontana as part of a two-year multi-agency investigation focusing on members of two violent street gangs with ties to firearms and narcotics trafficking.

ICE seizes 1,100 pounds of marijuana from bunker under south Texas garage

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents seized 2,608 pounds of marijuana in a coordinated enforcement effort with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol (BP) and the CBP Office of Air and Marine (OAM) Friday morning west of Nogales, Ariz.

Two current managers and three former managers or supervisors of Mambo Seafood were indicted on Wednesday on various charges related to harboring illegal aliens.

"U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) shared over 470,000 dollars in ""asset sharing"" funds with the Anne Arundel County Police Department which were seized during an investigation into illegal gambling businesses. The investigation was led by ICE HSI, with the assistance of the Anne Arundel County Police Department."

Anashe Ufumaka, 39, of New Haven, Conn., was sentenced Thursday to two years and three months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for dealing counterfeit currency and narcotics in a case investigated cooperatively with ICE's HSI.