News Releases and Statements

Jose Manuel Castro Orellana, 30, a citizen of El Salvador, was removed aboard an ICE Air Operations Charter flight without incident. Once in El Salvador, ICE ERO officers transferred custody of Castro Orellana to the Policia Nacional Civil (PNC) of El Salvador who will pursue criminal charges against him.

On Jan. 25, 2019, ERO officers filed a detainer with Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) for Yoni Cruz-Lopez, 24, a resident of Mt. Prospect, Illinois, and a citizen of Guatemala, after his felony conviction for driving under the influence (DUI). Cruz-Lopez has three DUI convictions (2015, 2016 and 2019).

February 6 marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. ICE, the FBI, and HRSP of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, all members of the HRVWCC, join U.S. and foreign government partners, non-governmental organizations, and local communities to call for the eradication of the practice.

Daniel Haughton, 45, of Brandon, was sentenced on one count of possession and one count of transportation of child pornography before U.S. District Court Judge Tom Lee.

Santos Ceferino Amaya-Cruz, 35, an active MS-13 gang member, has been removed from the U.S. on two prior occasions, most recently in 2017. He is the subject of an Interpol Red Notice.

Hector Beltran, 44, a resident of Edinburg, Texas, was convicted on July 22, 2019, for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine. Beltran was a former Edinburg Police Department K-9 officer.

Mayra Chaver, 32, of Honduras, pleaded guilty to assisting an illegal alien to evade arrest. The three others charged in relation to the crime – Mexican citizens Agustin Gutierrez-Gonzalez, 33, and Ivan Dario Puga-Moreno, 30; and Elena Ruiz, 35, of Corpus Christi – had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport illegal aliens into the United States causing death or serious bodily injury. Gutierrez-Gonzalez and Puga-Moreno were both illegally present in the United States, and pleaded guilty to illegal reentry.

On Feb. 3, ICE's ERO arrested Marissa Martinez, 29, also known as Wilson Yovani Martinez or Maritza Martinez, an unlawfully present Guatemalan national after she was released by Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail despite a lawful immigration detainer.

Martin Estrada-Barela was arrested by the NYPD Jan. 17, 2019, on the charges of attempted rape, unlawful imprisonment, and attempted assault. Estrada-Barela was subsequently arraigned and remanded into the custody of the NYCDOC.

According to data recently released from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, in the two years since the implementation of California’s State Bill 54 (SB54), the sheriff’s department has rearrested more than 400 of those they released on whom ICE had active detainers.

ICE's HSI Little Rock and Jonesboro special agents arrested 13 people and rescued three victims following an underage sex trafficking operation in Northeast Arkansas Jan. 30, 2020.

HSI Orlando special agents also worked with the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation organized crime section on human trafficking enforcement activities and outreach, as part of January’s Human Trafficking Awareness Month.

The individuals arrested throughout New Jersey were nationals of Argentina (1), Bolivia (1), Brazil (4), Colombia (3), Costa Rica (1), Cuba (2), Dominican Republic (9), Ecuador (9), El Salvador (12), Ghana (1), Guatemala (16), Honduras (9), India (2), Jamaica (2), Mexico (32), Nigeria (1), Panama (1), Peru (2), Philippines (1), Poland (2), Spain (2), United Kingdom (1), and Venezuela (1).

According to court documents and admissions made in connection to his plea agreement, Colonel Mark Visconi, 48, of Fairfax, received and attempted to receive child pornography through the Internet.

Vagner Geniu-Abreu, 39, of Brazil, was previously removed September 24, 2010, after a federal immigration judge issued him a final order of removal. Illegally reentering the United States after being lawfully removed is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Pursuant to an investigation by ICE’s HSI New York, working with the Department of Justice, Airbus SE (Airbus or the company), a global provider of civilian and military aircraft based in France, has agreed to pay combined penalties of more than $3.9 billion to resolve foreign bribery charges with authorities in the United States, France and the United Kingdom arising out of the company’s scheme to use third-party business partners to bribe government officials, as well as non-governmental airline executives, around the world and to resolve the company’s violation of the AECA and its implementing regulations, the ITAR, in the United States.

The case against Donald Dale Knuckles, 61, of Phoenix, began in November of 2018 when HSI special agents in Phoenix observed a computer that was sharing digital files containing graphic depictions of child sexual exploitation over a peer-to-peer file sharing network.

An Iraqi judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri, 42, on murder charges. The Government of Iraq subsequently requested Ahmed’s extradition from the United States. In accordance with its treaty obligations to Iraq, the United States filed a complaint in Phoenix seeking a warrant for Ahmed’s arrest based on the extradition request.

The $460,560.26 the Dallas District Attorney’s Office received was part of nearly $9 million seized by HSI and the IRS during the investigation of a criminal organization led by Frank Cacopardo.

Ubaldo Soto-Diaz, an illegal alien from Mexico, but residing in Portersville, California, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and heroin, SAC of ICE’s HSI Seattle Debra Parker and U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis announced.

Darnell Deshawn Stennis, 28, will be arraigned one count of sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion, and two counts of transporting individuals to engage in prostitution, before U.S. Magistrate Becky R Thorson in St. Paul on Feb. 6.