News Releases and Statements

Officials removed Mendez Gomez via ground transportation with assistance from ERO Harlingen, turning him over to Mexican authorities at the port of entry in Brownsville, Texas. 

On Jan. 19, officers with the ERO Harlingen fugitive operations team arrested Carlos Mauricio Zavala, a citizen of El Salvador, in Edinburg.

The symposium coincided with National Human Trafficking Awareness Day and Wear Blue Day. More than a dozen law enforcement agencies, nongovernmental organizations and community partners participated.

Dakotah James Gilmore, 32, pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge David P. Rush to one count of receiving and distributing child pornography.

Acting Special Agent in Charge of HSI Kansas City Taekuk Cho and United States Attorney Steven Russell announced that United States District Court Judge John M. Gerrard sentenced Aaron Joseph Kearney, 50, of Lincoln, to 13 years imprisonment for possession of child pornography on Jan. 20.

Acting Special Agent in Charge of HSI Kansas City Taekuk Cho and United States Attorney Steven Russell announced that a jury found Dalonte Foard, 25, of Omaha, Nebraska, guilty Jan. 24 after a four-day trial in federal court for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking following an HSI and law enforcement partner investigation.

Javier Alejandro Parada, 36, used a social media account to share nearly 35 files containing child sexual exploitation material in a group chat between Dec. 31, 2020, and Jan. 2, 2021, according to court documents.

Gerber Membreno-Portillo, 22, has an active arrest warrant in El Salvador for the crime of aggravated terrorist organizations (MS-13) against the public peace and security of the state.

ICE’s Air Operations Unit coordinated a flight for Juan Pablo Gonzalez Ferrer, 48, from the Harrisburg International Airport to Louisiana’s Alexandria International Airport Jan. 10. On Jan. 11, authorities flew him to the Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas.

ERO officers transported Carlos Mario Zacarias-Jimenez, 39, from the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall to the port of entry in Laredo. Officers turned Zacarias over to Mexican authorities without incident.

Hector Ruiz, 30, received the four-and-a-half-year sentence Jan. 18 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia for his part in a multistate drug trafficking conspiracy with ties to a Mexican drug cartel.

Reyna, Coleman and Martinez are documented La Quarenta gang members.

ERO Miami, in partnership with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, arrested Giovanni Radu, a 22-year-old citizen of Italy who entered the United States as a nonimmigrant and violated the terms of his admission. ERO Miami detained Radu in Royal Palm Harbor.

On Dec. 14, Tenescalco-Mejia entered the United States by climbing over the border wall near the Santa Teresa Port of Entry. Immigration officials arrested him and turned him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He remained detained at the El Paso Processing Center until his removal Jan. 18.

United States District Judge James D. Cain Jr. sentenced Garrett Michael Faulk, 25, to 21 years and 10 months in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release. Cain also sentenced Faulk to pay restitution in the amount of $3,000.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas sentenced Hector Hernandez, a 40-year-old Falfurrias resident, to 66 months in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Hernandez pleaded guilty to the charges Sept. 21.

The investigation revealed that Bryan Contreras-Avalos aka “Anonimo,” “Humilde” and “Malia,” is a member of the notorious street gang known as La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, and participated in at least three murders.

Kailey Olson, 30, of Sioux City pleaded guilty Jan. 12 in federal court to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

Edgar Garcia-Torres, 22, was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison. Not a U.S. citizen, Garcia-Torres is expected to face removal proceedings following his imprisonment.

Ian Fried, 57, received the lengthy prison sentence at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Jan. 13.

In August 2021, Miguel Almonte, 42, was convicted of human trafficking. He received a sentence of 10 years in prison, with all but a year and a half suspended, to be followed by five years’ probation.

Jaycob Andrew Bustamante, 21, was sentenced Jan. 10 to 204 months in prison to be followed by 30 years of supervised release.

A federal grand jury in Del Rio returned an indictment charging Jose Guadalupe Martinez-Ortiz, 28, of Garden City, Kansas.

According to court documents, Melvin L. Barahona-Godoy, 27, of Guatemala, and Yoryi Alexis Perez, 33, of the Dominican Republic, led several people to the Rio Grande River, Sept. 21, 2017.

Jose Montes-Solorio, 35, was flown from the Toledo Express Airport in Ohio to the Valley International Airport in Texas, Jan. 10. On the same date, ERO Harlingen escorted him via ground transportation to the border and turned him over to Mexican authorities.