News Releases and Statements

Leng Lee, 35, of Sarcoxie, Missouri, was charged in a three-count superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Springfield. The superseding indictment replaces an initial indictment returned on May 7, which charged Lee with being a felon illegally possessing firearms and ammunition.

According to court records, while living in California, Gloudina and Chantelle Robbertse devised and executed a scheme to defraud the CEDD. They continued the scheme when they moved to Idaho in April 2017.

Aliens arrested during this operation are from the following 14 countries:  Benin (1), Cuba (1), Ecuador (3), El Salvador (3), Guatemala (26), Honduras (7), Jordan (1), Mexico (92), Micronesia (1), Moldova (1), Nicaragua (1), Poland (1), Saudi Arabia (1) and South Korea (1).

The IPR Center conducted 339 foreign and domestic intellectual property rights and commercial fraud training events in FY 2017, reaching 14,258 participants. Domestic training events included the IPR Center’s Counterfeit Awareness, Mitigation, Identification, and Reporting Training.

Alfredo Aguilar Jr, 30, and co-defendants Cristen Nicole Cano, 29, and Cristal Hernandez, 23, were sentenced June 11 by U.S. District Judge Hilda G. Tagle. Judge Tagle sentenced Aguilar to 240 months in federal prison to be followed by 10 years of supervised release. Cano and Hernandez were each sentenced to 60 months. Cano and Hernandez must serve two and five years of supervised release, respectively. Aguilar, Cano and Hernandez are from the Texas towns of Harlingen, Combes and San Benito, respectively.

Claudius English, 45, was convicted June 10 in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) for multiple counts of sex trafficking minors, attempted sex trafficking of minors as young as 8 years old, kidnapping of a minor, and using a firearm to commit the kidnapping.

Ty Lee Treddenbarger, 54, of Burien, Washington, pleaded guilty in October 2018, admitting he photographed and saved images of his molestation of minor victims between the ages of 13 and 16.

Raymond Luis Peltier, 43, of Surprise, will also serve a consecutive term of lifetime probation upon his release from prison, and will have to register as a sex offender.

On Nov. 15, 2000, the Criminal Judicial Branch in Sinaloa, Mexico, issued a warrant against Arturo Lopez-Mendez (a.k.a. “El Mocho”), 45, for the offense of rape. On June 18, 2018, Mexican authorities notified ERO Phoenix that Lopez-Mendez was subject to an outstanding arrest warrant on rape charges.

Samuel Vasquez-Morales, 18, from Mexico,  pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to transport illegal aliens from China and Brazil within the United States.

Yassin Muhiddin Aref, 38, was sentenced to 180 months imprisonment for seven counts relating to material support of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

Christopher Clay Roman-Tuttle, 33, now of Spokane, Washington, who also uses the name Christopher Clay Tuttle, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson. Once he completes the prison sentence, Tuttle will be required to register as a sex offender and will be on supervised release for the rest of his life.

Aaron Reed, 30, of Rocklin, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison today for sexual exploitation of children, receiving child pornography, and transferring obscene material to minors.

Nicholas Shreck, a 41-year-old Seattle, Washington man, was found to be in possession of images of sexual assaults of children and was sentenced to 70 months in prison and 20 years supervision.

Patrick Owusu, 42, a citizen of Ghana, will be removed once he has completed his sentence.

Authorities arrested Ivan Dario Puga-Moreno, 23, of Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, on June 6, 2019, in Houston, Texas. He made his initial appearance June 10 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dena Palermo in Houston.

John Ford, 38, who had a final order of removal to Canada, was escorted by ERO officers from El Paso to Houston International Airport, where he boarded a commercial flight, which the officers verified departed directly to Ontario, Canada.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) recently named Steve Francis as the new assistant director of the HSI-led Global Trade Investigations Division (GTID) and director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center).

Over the weekend, HSI Yuma special agents arrested Angel Leon-Camberos, 26, and seized 527.3 lbs. of methamphetamine (approximate street value of nearly $7.2 million), 14.88 lbs. of high grade marijuana and numerous wax (marijuana extract) products with an approximate street value of $103,930, one AR-15 style rifle, one magazine, packaging materials, multiple cell phones and $15,295 in cash in a targeted enforcement action lead by HSI.

Daniel Courville, 43, of Tucson, was indicted by a federal grand jury March 23, 2017, for one count of knowingly accessing child pornography depicting sexual abuse of pre-pubescent minors paving the way for his arrest March 28, 2017.

Fresno HSI agents completed a two-day training for local law enforcement officers, analysts, and prosecutors, Wednesday, June 6. During this event, participants received the latest information about federal human trafficking investigations and about proven law enforcement best practices to implement.

Arrests occurred in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Of those arrested, 22 were convicted criminals, 10 had criminal charges pending, 27 had been issued a final order of removal and failed to depart the United States, and 2 had been previously removed from the United States.