Public Information

Inside ICE: Volume 2, Issue 23

Combined Authorities Increase ICE Effectiveness In Law Enforcement

ICE agents stand guard November 9 outside one of five Arizona motels linked to an investigation of a human smuggling organization.

ICE agents search the office of a motel linked to a human smuggling organization in Arizona. Twelve persons were arrested in the operation, which used ICE’s combined authorities to target the smuggling group and the motels used as “drop houses” by the smugglers.

On November 9, ICE agents arrested 12 persons in Arizona after a nine-month undercover investigation targeting members of the motel industry who were supporting violent human smuggling organizations. Federal authorities will also seek forfeiture of five motels. The case is the latest example of how ICE, by combining its legacy customs and immigration authorities, is forging its reputation as a new and powerful law enforcement agency.

Finding motels used as staging points and drop houses by smuggling organizations is not new. Legacy INS frequently encountered such tactics in its investigations into human smuggling organizations. What is new is that ICE has the ability to use the authorities from legacy U.S. Customs to follow the money trail linked to human smuggling activities, and to find and seize the financial assets related to or earned from those crimes.

In the Arizona case, ICE agents with expertise in human smuggling worked to build a case against the smuggling organization while ICE agents specializing in financial investigations were able to develop criminal cases against the motel owners and forfeiture cases against their properties. The criminal indictments allege that the motels were used to facilitate human smuggling and to harbor illegal aliens. The total value of the motels could be as high as $7.2 million. This is believed to be one of the first cases in which ICE agents have used the financial forfeiture provisions of federal law against motels in a human smuggling investigation.

While the logic of combining authorities is obvious, it wasn’t always this way. Before 2003, the former INS used its long-standing immigration expertise primarily to bring immigration-related charges against human

smuggling organizations. The former U.S. Customs Service used its long-standing financial investigative expertise primarily against drug trafficking organizations. But these agencies rarely collaborated in targeting human trafficking or smuggling organizations.

Today, ICE has combined the criminal investigators from the former Customs Service and INS, and those agents are now applying their immigration and financial investigative authorities jointly in a coordinated campaign. For the first time, these criminal organizations are seeing both their smuggling operations and their illegal profits and financial infrastructures targeted by U.S. investigators. Perhaps the single most effective tool in immigration law enforcement to emerge from combining the investigative authorities has been the application of financial investigations to target criminal organizations involved in immigration law violations.

Since the creation of ICE in March 2003, ICE investigations into human smuggling and trafficking organizations have resulted in approximately 5,460 criminal arrests, 2,880 criminal indictments and 2,358 convictions. All the while, the number of ICE investigations launched against human smuggling and trafficking organizations has steadily increased—from 2,564 in Fiscal Year (FY) 2004 to 3,348 in FY 2005.

At the same time, ICE has begun applying its financial expertise in order to target the illicit proceeds of these criminal organizations. As a result, the amount of assets seized in these immigration-related cases has dramatically increased—from roughly zero before ICE was created to $7.7 million during FY 2004 and $26.8 million in FY 2005.

ICE Combined Authority Cases

ICE’s use of combined authorities has been substantial and widespread. Recent cases that illustrate the impact created by ICE’s combined authorities include:

On September 29, a Texas man and his employment firm, the Great Texas Employment Agency, were found guilty of money laundering and conspiracy to transport thousands of illegal aliens. Yu Wei Shan, 51, and his company transported more than 6,000 illegal aliens to Asian restaurants throughout the Midwest and laundered the illegal proceeds reaped from this operation.
On September 13, Pavel Preus, 39, a Polish national and resident of Pompano Beach, Fla., pleaded guilty to numerous charges, including conspiracy to launder more than $20 million, in connection with a nationwide illegal employee leasing conspiracy. Beginning in1995, Preus conspired to provide hundreds of illegal aliens, mostly Eastern Europeans, to American companies.
On August 12, Horacio Golfarini, 43, a native of Uruguay, pleaded guilty in Houston to conspiring with an immigration attorney and others to launder funds earned through an international visa scam. Golfarini and three others were indicted in an ICE investigation that showed defendants filed bogus immigration petitions to create the illusion that there was affiliation between certain Chinese and U.S. companies.
On August 11, a federal grand jury in Boston indicted Mario Viana, 39, and Julio Viana, 37, for operating an illegal money transmittal business. Mario Viana was also charged with four counts of alien smuggling. In addition, Julio Viana was charged with thirteen counts of structuring financial transactions to avoid federal law.
On July 20, ICE agents announced that Pedro Castorena-Ibarra, 42, of Guadalajara, Mexico, was indicted in Denver for masterminding an international criminal organization responsible for the illegal production and distribution of counterfeit identification documents in cities throughout the United States. Castorena-Ibarra remains a fugitive from justice.
On July 1, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles handed down indictments charging 24 persons for their role in a sophisticated human smuggling scheme that brought hundreds of South Korean women into the United States to work as prostitutes at brothels. The indictments charge the suspects with conspiracy to import aliens to the United States for prostitution; transporting illegal aliens; and harboring and concealing illegal aliens. In addition, the indictment charges several brothel operators with money laundering and illegal monetary transactions.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Combined Authorities Increase ICE Effectiveness In Law Enforcement

ICE Deports Egyptian Linked To ’93 WTC Bombing

ICE Budget Gains 6.3 Percent In FY 06 DHS Spending Bill

ICE Most Wanted

ICE Plays Key Role In Secure Border Initiative

ICE Arrests 106 Illegal Workers At Washington Warehouses

Operator Of National Sex Business Pleads Guilty To Obscenity, Tax Charges

Cooperation Between ICE, State Leads To Arrest Of N.J. Gang Member

Four Charged In Scheme To Sell 30,000 Counterfeit Luxury Items

ICE Thanks Von Amelunxen Foundation

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