News Releases and Statements

On May 27, 2020, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Mark A. Paglini residence in Salem, Wisconsin.

Galima Murry, a U.S. Army sergeant, was sentenced today to serve eight months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and making false statements regarding that fraud to the government.

Former deputy Phillip Guidry, 35, of Houma was dismissed from his position following his arrest by HSI on 20 counts of possession of child pornography involving juveniles under the age of 13. 

Fabbricatore’s area of responsibility as the FOD for the Denver office includes Colorado and Wyoming, covering over 207,000 square miles of territory with 10 sub-offices.

ICE HSI Criminal Analyst Kim Reece was named as a finalist for the prestigious Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal. Ms. Reece, alongside cross-agency partners Christopher M. Janczewski, IRS-CI, and Zia M. Faruqui, DOJ, led an international criminal investigation of the largest dark web child pornography site accepting cryptocurrency to cloak more than one million video downloads.

Gabriel Prisecaru, 43, a citizen of Romania, is currently wanted by Romanian law enforcement authorities for a Nov. 25, 2014, conviction for criminal association, skimming and illegal financial operations. Vasile Florian Grutoiu, 38, a citizen of Romania, is currently wanted by Romanian law enforcement authorities for refusal to submit to an alcohol blood test.

HSI Jackson special agents arrested James Haynes, 65, Jarvis Haynes, 29, and Neman Zahid, 32, of Jackson, Miss., after an original indictment returned by a federal grand jury on March 19, 2019, charged the defendants with defrauding multiple victims as part of an international tech support and telemarketing fraud scheme.

Digna Del Carmen Medina, 29, a citizen of El Salvador who was unlawfully present in the United States, was escorted from Houston, Texas, to the Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport in San Salvador, El Salvador, where she was presented to Salvadoran law enforcement authorities.

Jose Francisco Guerra, 80, from Mission, Texas, pleaded guilty May 26, before U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez, for attempting to export contraband cigarettes.

On March 30, 1978, a judge sentenced Payne-Archer, also known as Karl Dean, to 25 years to life in prison for the shooting death of Taylor in Brooklyn, New York.

Richard Schirripa, a/k/a “the Mask Man,” a licensed pharmacist, is charged with violating the Defense Production Act by hoarding and price gouging scarce N95 masks; making two false statements to law enforcement; committing healthcare fraud; and committing aggravated identity theft.

Jaime Valle-Saracay, 27, a citizen of El Salvador, was removed via an ICE Air Operations charter flight without incident. Once in El Salvador, ICE ERO officers transferred custody of Valle-Saracay to the Policia Nacional Civil (PNC) of El Salvador, to pursue criminal charges against him.

Consistent with the agency’s protocols, the appropriate agencies have been notified about the death, including DHS's OIG, and ICE's OPR.

Kristal Patricia Leonard, 34, of Huntington Beach, California, pleaded guilty in February to possession with intent to distribute meth.

On April 24, ICE was directed by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to make every effort to promptly and safely release juvenile aliens who have suitable custodians and who are not a flight risk or a danger to themselves or others. The court recognized that parents, not the government, should decide whether the juvenile should be released to a sponsor. To comply with this order, ICE was required to check with each of the juveniles – and their parents – in custody at family residential centers (FRCs) to make individual parole determinations with respect to those juveniles.

Terrance Nordwall, 51, of Faribault, Minnesota, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge C.J. Williams to 324 months in federal prison after a jury found him guilty Oct. 31 of attempted sex trafficking of children, attempted enticement of minors, and travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

The five-count indictment, returned May 19, named Jackson Curtis Martin, III, 44, and Amanda Michelle Downs, 28.

While in the United States on a visa, Emmanuel Odiah, 33, a citizen of Nigeria, most recently of Dallas, laundered money for a network of individuals perpetrating computer-based fraud schemes in Nigeria and Ghana.

Consistent with the agency’s protocols, the appropriate agencies have been notified about the death, including DHS's Office of Inspector General, and the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility.

Investigators found the video of the infant, which was created in 2010, while preparing for Zweitzig’s sentencing hearing in a separate child exploitation case filed by this Office. In that previous case, Zweitzig was charged in May 2019 with five counts of manufacturing and attempted manufacturing of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

Lin Li, a.k.a. Aaron Li, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to manufacture, possess and distribute at least 1,000 marijuana plants.

Pursuant to ongoing Cultural Property, Arts & Antiquities investigations by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York, a civil complaint was filed Monday to forfeit a rare cuneiform tablet bearing a portion of the epic of Gilgamesh, a Sumerian epic poem considered one the world’s oldest works of literature.

Employers who were served notices of inspection (NOIs) by ICE during the month of March 2020 and had not already responded were granted an automatic extension for 60 days from the effective date. ICE will grant an additional extension of 30 days to these employers.

This gang investigation was prompted by three murders, occurring on the street, at Kissena Park and on an elevated Subway Platform in Queens. One defendant was arrested May 13 in Maryland. Five defendants were arrested May 14 in New York and California. On May 15, four defendants will be arrested and transferred to federal custody from detention facilities where they are currently held.