News Releases and Statements

Saul Caro, 33, and the victim – identified on court records as M.S. – exchanged text messages on April 11, 2021, to coordinate the sale of counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl, according to the plea agreement. Caro delivered the pills to M.S.’s residence.

Mason Jordan, 31, appeared in federal court June 3 in Albuquerque after his arrest June 2 on charges of sexual exploitation of a child, coercion, and enticement of a minor to engage in prostitution, sex trafficking of a child, and cyberstalking. On May 26, a Honolulu federal grand jury returned the eight-count indictment against Jordan, which was unsealed after his arrest.

The arrests were all made under Operation SOAR (Sex Offender Arrest and Removal), a coordinated fugitive operations initiative that prioritizes the arrest and removal of unlawfully present convicted sex offenders.

Colby Fronterhouse, 42, of Springfield, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge Beth Phillips to 12 years in federal prison without parole.

The offenses included conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise; conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion of a minor; various violent crimes in aid of racketeering offenses including kidnapping and assaults with dangerous weapons; sex trafficking including of minors; and firearms offenses; all arising from their membership and association in a violent gang called “The Sevens,” which took control and operated out of a 50-room boarding house on South 4th Street in the City of Reading.

Leonardo Davila Jr., 24-year-old resident of Mission, Texas, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to smuggling 73 people while driving an 18-wheeler.

Victor Alberto Elias Rodriguez, age 40, of Mount Pleasant, was sentenced Wednesday to 342 months in prison for the production of child pornography following a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) probe.

Laderrick Dedemon Smith, 23, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Sean D. Jordan on May 26, 2022. He pled guilty on August 24, 2021.

The report – Detecting and Reporting the Illicit Financial Flows Tied to Organized Theft Groups and Organized Retail Crime – highlights red flags associated with organized theft groups, including structured deposits and withdrawals, large purchases of stored-value cards, high-dollar wire transfers tied to wholesale companies involved with health and beauty supplies, and large purchases of lighter fluid or heat guns, among others.

Unlawfully present Salvadoran citizen, Jose Guzman Moreno, 62, was flown from Buffalo Niagara International Airport in Cheektowaga, New York to a staging area in Louisiana, prior to arriving in El Salvador International Airport in San Salvador on a flight coordinated by ICE’s Air Operations Unit. Upon arrival, the noncitizen was turned over to officials from El Salvador.

Officers with the ICE ERO Boston field office arrested Vagner Brito Paixao in Somerville, Massachusetts on May 25, a criminal fugitive previously convicted and sentenced to serve 14 years in prison on child rape charges in Brazil.

This was an undercover operation targeting the demand for commercial sex, sex buyers, and human trafficking, which led to 43 arrests for crimes including child sex trafficking, prostitution, drug charges, and misconduct involving weapons. The focus was on hotel prostitution and street prostitution enforcement.

After a nine-day trial, in October 2019, a federal jury convicted Sandoval-Rodriguez of murder in aid of racketeering, and conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, in connection with a murder that occurred in March 2016. Then on January 24, after a three-month trial, a federal jury convicted Sandoval-Rodriguez of racketeering charges, along with co-defendants Jose Joya Parada, a/k/a “Calmado,” age 21; Oscar Armando Sorto Romero, a/k/a “Lobo,” age 23; and Milton Portillo Rodriguez, a/k/a “Little Gangster,” a/k/a “Seco,” age 26. Sandoval-Rodriguez and Portillo-Rodriguez were also convicted of multiple counts of murder in aid of racketeering.

“Operation Lost Souls” ran from the end of April through mid-May in El Paso, Midland and Ector and Tom Green counties. The missing youth, many of them runaways, ranged in age from 10 to 17.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Joshua James Duggar, 34, repeatedly downloaded and viewed images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children, including images of prepubescent children and depictions of sadistic abuse. In addition to the 151-month sentence, Duggar must serve 20 years supervised release, register as a sex offender, and pay $50,000 in fines.

In December 2020, Chavez-Santiago, a documented member of the Varrio San Marcos gang, was convicted in the Superior Court of California in San Diego County for lewd acts upon a child.

The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida sentenced Christopher Edwin Day, 52, to life in prison on May 16. Day previously pled guilty to two counts of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and two counts of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor into illegal sexual activity.

Jesus Acosta-Gandarilla was accused on April 25, of committing Second Degree Money Laundering, Conspiracy, and Illegally Conducting an Enterprise between Sept. 26, 2017 to Nov. 1, 2017, by allowing others to deposit approximately $55,000 into his Wells Fargo Bank account and by personally wiring approximately $55,000, in order to conceal the identity of the actual persons receiving the money.

Daniel Lee Ogorzolka, 70, from Pleasanton, Texas, was sentenced May 23 in federal court to 75 months in federal prison to be followed by 10 years of supervised release to include paying $20,000 in restitution.

Tyrell Kester, 36, of Marana, Arizona, will also be on supervised release upon conclusion of his prison sentencing. Kester previously pleaded guilty to possession of ammunition by a prohibited person.

In 2020, Deivide Lino-Ribeiro, 31, was convicted in Brazil for homicide and aggravated robbery in a violent 2014 gas station robbery in the City of Mantena, Brazil that resulted in the death of a gas station cashier. His brother James Lino-Ribeiro, 28, who was an accomplice to his brother in the robbery, was also convicted in Brazil in 2020 of aggravated robbery in the attack.

The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA) honored Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila, former Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents, during a local ceremony on May 11. The commemoration coincided with National Police Week, an annual recognition held each May for law enforcement officers who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Obaidullah Syed, 67, of Northbrook, pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to export goods from the U.S. without a license from the Department of Commerce and to submit false export information. U.S. District Judge Mary M. Rowland on Tuesday sentenced Syed to a year and a day in federal prison. Prior to sentencing, Syed forfeited $247,000 of criminally derived funds to the U.S. government.

The lead defendant is 37-year-old Natalie Le Demola. She is currently serving a life prison sentence after she was convicted in 2005 of first-degree murder. 32-year-old Carleisha Neosha Plummer of Los Angeles is also charged. She was a close associate of Demola in prison until she was paroled in July 2020.

Last week, results from an undercover operation dubbed “April Fools” aimed at targeting alleged sexual predators was announced by local law enforcement in partnership with ICE's HSI.