News Releases and Statements

Sean Graham pleaded guilty April 24 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to possession with intent to distribute more than 180 grams of methamphetamines.

Norman Antoine LeBlanc, age 34, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles to production and attempted production of child pornography. As a result of his conviction, LeBlanc faces imprisonment, fines and a period of supervised release that includes sex offender registration.

ERO Boston lodged an immigration detainer seeking his custody with the Brockton, Massachusetts District Court and the Plymouth County House of Correction on April 4.

Mary De Anda-Ybarra, a native El Pasoan with more than 27 years of federal law enforcement experience, is the new field office director for ERO in El Paso, Texas.

Trajahn Alexander Johnson, 25, of Glendale, Arizona, was sentenced to six months in prison followed by two years of supervised release. Johnson, the final co-conspirator to be sentenced, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport illegal aliens resulting in death. 

HSI International Operations Deputy Assistant Director Ricardo Mayoral and H.E. Mr. Marios Lysiotis, ambassador of Cyprus at the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Washington D.C., sign a certificate of transfer for Cypriot pottery during a repatriation ceremony April 20, 2023.

The efforts targeted noncitizens who have public safety arrests or convictions with a final order of removal and no pending appeals. They also targeted noncitizens released from Orleans Parish where immigration detainers were not honored.

The technology demonstration will begin with a limited deployment in Denver to test feasibility in an operational setting.

The jury convicted Michael A. Ferris, 44, of Mill Shoals, of 25 felony counts of extortion, cyberstalking, and production, distribution and possession of child pornography in November 2022.

The Riverside Police Department arrested Miguel Vargas, 38, on Oct. 25, 2014, and the Superior Court of California, County of Riverside, subsequently convicted him in February of 2017 for related felony charges.

ERO Boston officers encountered the Brazilian national in the town of Milford, Massachusetts. ERO Boston determined that the individual was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to nine years of incarceration by a criminal court in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in June 2017.

ERO officers in Hartford discovered that the unlawfully present individual was wanted since May 2022 by law enforcement authorities in Westmoreland, Jamaica, on charges of murder, unlawful possession of a firearm and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

The man, identified by law enforcement authorities as affiliated with the 18th Street Salvadoran criminal gang organization, is wanted on charges of aggravated extortion and participation in a terrorist organization by Salvadoran law enforcement in Guazapa, El Salvador.

Moshe Michael Imel, 53, of Owings, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to two federal charges of production of child pornography involving two minor victims.

This web-based system provides a fully automated, online capability to request verification of bond eligibility, make cash immigration bond payments, and send electronic notifications to cash bond obligors.

An investigation conducted by HSI Washington, D.C. resulted in a 19-year federal prison sentence, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for Chad Michael Lehofer, 37, of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Acting Special Agent in Charge for HSI Kansas City Taekuk Cho and U.S. Attorney Steven Russell announced that Bartolo Roman-Tapia, 23, of Mexico, was sentenced on April 19, 2023, in federal court in Omaha for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine following an HSI probe.

The Brazilian national is currently charged with carrying a firearm without a license, carrying a loaded firearm without a license, and possession of ammunition without a firearms identification card.

Adrian Duran-Estrada, 39, of Tucson, was also ordered to pay a $200 special assessment and a $20,000 money judgment. Duran-Estrada pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport illegal aliens and unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

According to court documents, Claudia Patricia Díaz Guillen, 49, and her husband, Adrian José Velásquez, 43, accepted and laundered over $136 million in bribes from co-conspirator Raúl Gorrin Belisario, a Venezuelan billionaire businessman who owned Globovision news network.

A recent ERO Baltimore operation apprehended two unlawfully present noncitizens who were convicted of sex offenses in Maryland.

On March 14, David Daniel Gallegos, 21, of Pomona, California, allegedly applied for admission into the United States from Mexico via a vehicle lane at the San Luis Port of Entry in San Luis.

The Colombian national is currently charged in Suffolk Superior Court with felony rape; felony assault and battery of family or household member; and assault with a dangerous weapon. An immigration detainer was lodged with the Suffolk County Jail but was not honored.

Officials flew Eduardo Rocha Dos Santos, 41, a citizen of Brazil, from Massachusetts to Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where he was turned over to the proper authorities.

Ernesto Gaona-Gonzalez, 59, of Mission, was charged with attempting to smuggle a noncitizen. On April 18, U.S. Magistrate Judge Nadia S. Medrano found Gaona-Gonzalez to be a danger to the community and a flight risk and ordered him to remain in custody pending further criminal proceedings.