News Releases and Statements

A 36-year-old Lake Forest, Calif., woman was taken into custody here Friday by investigators with the Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD) on suspicion of child molestation and rape of a 13-year-old Maryland boy. Agents with U.S. ICE'S Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) provided substantial assistance in the investigation and arrest...

Authorities announced Friday that the number felony prosecutions in the Eastern District of California in fiscal year 2010 for illegal re-entry after deportation hit their highest level in at least 12 years.

A lengthy joint investigation into a local cocaine distribution operation ended last month with the arrests of the nine subjects who face state felony narcotics charges.

The arms smugglers allegedly purchased a variety of firearms through fraudulent means and attempted to export them to Mexico.

Two Mexican nationals, who had previously been deported from the United States, each pleaded guilty in unrelated cases on Jan. 5 in federal court to illegally reentering the country. Both convictions stem from police traffic stops, and both investigations were jointly conducted with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In April 2007, a federal grand jury in Dallas returned a one-count indictment against Tommy Dale Daniel, 62, of Farmers Branch, Texas, charging him with possessing child pornography.

Robert M. Lopes, 43, of Coventry, R.I., who pleaded guilty in June 2010 to receipt and distribution of child pornography, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Providence to 60 months in federal prison, lifetime supervised release with strict guidelines, and was ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution to a victim who appeared in the "Vicky" series of child pornography videos.

A local area man was arraigned Jan. 6 on a federal indictment charging him with child pornography.

Steven C. Albers, 42, of Kansas City-North, Mo., was sentenced Jan. 6 by U.S. Chief District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan, Western District of Missouri, to 15 years in federal prison without parole for attempted commercial sex trafficking of a child.

Steven Flick, 60, a Jackson, Mich., resident and former Jackson Public Schools bus driver, was sentenced for possession of child sexually abusive material after a ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court in the case that held that viewing child pornography on websites constitutes possession of child pornography. Flick received nine months of...

A five-time deported criminal alien, who also brandished a firearm during a local robbery, was sentenced in federal court on Thursday to more than nine years in prison.

A Los Angeles-area tax preparer, who was charged in a multi-faceted financial scheme that included making false claims to enable aliens to obtain religious worker visas, has pleaded guilty to tax and visa fraud charges.

Lt. Cmdr. Mark Tilford, 43, a Corpus Christi resident and active duty Navy lawyer, was charged in a nine-count sealed indictment returned by a Corpus Christi grand jury on Dec. 20. The indictment was unsealed Jan. 5 after Tilford was arrested at his home by special agents with ICE HSI and the Navy Criminal Investigative Service.

Ronald Smith, 51, a citizen of Jamaica who was previously deported, was sentenced Wednesday to 54 months in federal prison, following an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Florida Highway Patrol and the Social Security Administration.

ICE's NSID - part of HSI - leads efforts to identify, disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal enterprises and terrorist organizations that threaten the security of the United States.

On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began using a federal information sharing capability in Licking County, Ohio, 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 owner of a major Guam construction company has been charged in a 124-count indictment with a battery of federal violations for allegedly recruiting dozens of Chinese foreign nationals to come to Guam to work for his firm, then forcing them to labor long hours at substandard wages.

U.S. ICE began using a federal information-sharing capability in Pettis 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. This capability is part of Secure Communities...

A member of the La Mara Salvatrucha gang, commonly known as MS-13, pleaded guilty in federal court to racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder, the third MS-13 gang member in as many months to plead guilty to serious charges stemming from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations.

Timothy E. Whitington, 44, of Euless, Texas, on Monday appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey L. Cureton who ordered him detained pending further court proceedings.

Douglas Lee Patrick, 39, of Baltimore was sentenced today to 122 months followed by supervised release for life for receiving images depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Hipolito Alejandro Felix, 38, of Port Saint Lucie, Fla., pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Fort Pierce to attempted production of child pornography following an investigation by ICE's HSI in Ft. Pierce and the Port Saint Lucie Police Department.

Leonard Wasylyk, 48, of North Wilmington, Del., has been charged with one count each of transportation, receipt and possession of child pornography, as outlined in an indictment. ICE's HSI executed a search warrant at Wasylyk's North Wilmington residence and arrested him on Dec. 9, 2010.

Ninety-three of the 95 individuals arrested had been convicted of crimes ranging from attempted murder to child neglect.

Last week in a three-day enforcement operation throughout Maryland, 18 immigration fugitives and immigration violators, almost all convicted of Driving Under the Influence (DUI), were arrested by officers with ICE's ERO.