News Releases and Statements

Mohamad Youssef Hammoud, 37, was resentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison on charges related to his activities of providing material support to the foreign terrorist organization, Hezbollah, from about 1995 to July 2000 in Charlotte.

A former local Boys and Girls Club director was sentenced to 80 months in federal prison on Wednesday, following a child pornography investigation by special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

With the Pro Bowl kickoff fast approaching, special agents with U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) here in the host city seized more than 135 items of counterfeit NFL apparel Wednesday in an operation targeting vendors at two popular Honolulu-area swap meets, including one based at the stadium where Sunday's game will be played.

Special agents with U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested today one of ICE's top ten fugitives at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Veniamin Gonikman, 55, was charged in Detroit in 2005 in a 22-count indictment with trafficking in persons, forced labor, alien smuggling, money laundering, extortion collection...

Mary Jesse Cuadros, 24, of Houston, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal. She has been in custody since her May 1, 2009 arrest, and will remain in federal custody through her transfer to a Bureau of Prisons facility where she will serve out her sentence.

Anthony DiBenedetto, 64, of North Branford, Conn., waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of unlawful employment of illegal aliens as the result of an investigation conducted by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Across the world, fugitives evade law enforcement by fleeing countries where they've committed crimes. Since August 2010, ICE's Fugitive Alien Removal Program has removed 27 individuals from the United States who were wanted overseas.

Aetna Fire Alarm Service Company, Inc. has signed the state's first-ever agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to strengthen hiring practices and to combat the unlawful employment of illegal aliens.

Oliver King, who is also known as Hamid Malekpour, 35, was arrested by HSI agents on May 19, 2010, in Ferndale, Wash., after traveling from Canada to McMinnville, Ore., and back to Ferndale over a two-day period.

Special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) on Monday turned over to the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic of Mexico (PGR) a Mexican national who allegedly attempted to smuggle 244 pounds of marijuana into the United States.

On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began using a federal information sharing capability in Hardin County that helps federal immigration officials use biometrics to identify aliens, both lawfully and unlawfully present in the United States, who are booked into local law enforcement's custody for a crime.

The grand jury alleges that Jonathan Binns of Shenandoah, Pa., produced images of child pornography and used a computer to download and distribute images of child pornography between February and October 2010.

Ismael B. Rodriguez, 45, the owner of Cazadores Mexican Restaurants in Pensacola, was sentenced Tuesday to 5 years in federal prison for mail fraud and conspiracy, following a joint investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Florida Department of Financial Services - Fraud Division.

Immigration attorney Parmesh N. Dixit, 40, of Alpharetta, Ga.,was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on charges of visa fraud, alien harboring, and conspiracy, following an investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the United States Department of Labor.

The complaint alleges that late in the evening on Jan. 10, 2010, Daniel Feneis, 24, from Sears, Mich., and a 14-year-old girl identified as Jane Doe in the complaint, left Michigan together and intending to start "a new life" in St. Louis, Mo. Feneis and Jane Doe had been involved in a sexual relationship in Michigan for about six months.

On Tuesday, five northern California counties - Colusa, Nevada, Plumas, Sutter and Tehama - became the latest in the state to benefit from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) federal information-sharing capability that helps federal immigration officials use biometrics to identify aliens, both lawfully and unlawfully present in the United States, who are booked into local law enforcement's custody for a crime.

The owners and operators of six massage parlors and a legal brothel were sentenced to 16 months in prison and two years of supervised release, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) into prostitution and money laundering.

With the expansion of the biometric information sharing capability to Henry, Rockdale and Spalding counties, ICE is using this capability in 13 Georgia jurisdictions, including Clayton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, Fulton, Muscogee, Hall, Whitfield, Cherokee and Forsyth counties.

Kenneth S. King, 63, of Fort Worth, Texas, who was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons by the end of next month, must also register as a sex offender and pay a $5000 fine.

A Kansas man was convicted by a federal trial jury Jan. 24 on charges related to passing more than 100,000K worth of counterfeit casino chips at the Argosy Riverside Casino in a case investigated jointly by the Missouri State Highway Patrol Gaming Division working with U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

The driver of the insulated tractor trailer used in a smuggling operation which left 19 aliens dead in the deadliest smuggling operation ever in the district was re-sentenced on Monday to 33 years and nine months imprisonment without the possibility of parole, announced U.S. Attorney Jose Angel Moreno, Southern District of Texas.

In addition, Scott H. Denney, 48, must register as a sex offender and pay $10,000 in restitution to the victim of the "Vicky" series. He was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons at the end of February.

Jeremy Guzewicz, 28, of Parkville, Md., was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually exploiting a child to produce child pornography as the result of an investigation conducted by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Guzewicz had portrayed himself on an internet social networking site that is marketed towards teenagers...

David Ivins, 34, of Feasterville, Pa., was sentenced January 24 to 72 months in prison for possession of child pornography. Ivins was charged May 7, 2009, with possession of more than 600 images of child pornography and Ivins was convicted by a jury in a case investigated by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Four Mexican nationals were convicted of re-entering the United States after being previously deported by officers with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).