News Releases and Statements

According to court documents, on June 17, 2019, James Edward Groover, II, 34, of Antwerp, Ohio, returned to the United States from a three-day cruise to the Bahamas, carrying his cell phone and laptop computer. Upon his entry into Port Canaveral, Florida, law enforcement agents conducted a border search of his devices and located 4,638 images and 1,763 videos depicting the sexual abuse and exploitation of infants, toddlers and prepubescent children.

Mexican citizen Ivan Dario Puga-Moreno, 31, was sentenced July 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy to transport unlawfully present aliens into the United States causing death or serious bodily injury.

Bernard Lopez, 40, of Sayreville, New Jersey, is charged by complaint with one count of bank fraud, one count of theft of government funds and one count of aggravated identity theft. He was arrested July 6, appeared July 8 by teleconference before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lauren F. Louis in the Southern District of Florida, and is expected to appear by videoconference before U.S. Magistrate Judge Leda Dunn Wettre later this week.

According to the indictment, beginning by at least some date in 2016, Edward Alan Hardin, 33, of Pomona Park, began soliciting a child victim to engage in commercial sex acts, knowing that the victim was younger than 18 years old.

Geoffrey Eldridge Hull, 40, who maintained offices on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, was arrested Wednesday evening by special agents with ICE's HSI. Hull was arrested pursuant to a federal grand jury indictment that charges him with six counts of wire fraud related to his “lease consignment” program.

The drugs and weapons were seized from two separate marijuana grow houses in St. Tammany Parish and Orleans Parish. Hung Q. Nguyen, Phi Q. Nguyen, and Tuan Q. Nguyen were arrested and booked into the St. Tammany Parish Jail for Cultivation of Marijuana, Possession with Intent to Distribute Schedule I Controlled Dangerous Substance, Creation/Operation of a Clandestine Laboratory, Drug Conspiracy, and Racketeering.

Unlawfully present Salvadoran national Saul Alberto Benavides, 35, was flown from the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, to the Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport in San Salvador, El Salvador, on a charter flight coordinated by ICE’s Air Operations Unit.

On June 6, 2019, Berrios-Trinidad arranged to bring two underage females to a hotel for a "sex party" with adult men. On that evening, he arrived with two girls, ages 14 and 17. Once inside the hotel room, Berrios-Trinidad was arrested, and the victims were rescued.

In fiscal year (FY) 2019, the 287(g) program resulted in almost 25,000 law enforcement encounters with aliens in the custody of participating jurisdictions.

Ruben Maldonado-Espino, 30, from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, was convicted by U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo, Southern District of Texas. Since he is not a U.S. citizen, he is expected to face deportation proceedings following his incarceration.

Rowan Olsen, 19, of Portland, is charged with disorderly conduct, creating a hazard on federal property, and failing to obey a lawful order; Shant Singh Ahuja, 28, of Oceanside, California, is charged with destruction of federal property; and Andrew Steven Faulkner, 24, of Beaverton, Oregon; Gretchen Margaret Blank, 29, of Seattle, Washington; Christopher Fellini, 31, of Portland; Cody Porter, 28, of Portland; and Taimane Jame Teo, 24, of Eugene, Oregon, are charged with assaulting federal officers.

Elvis Antonio Velasquez-Molina, 29, from El Salvador, was arrested by ICE officers May 23 near Staten Island, New York after a warrant for his arrest was discovered during a records check.

Following an investigation by ICE’s HSI New York’s CPAA unit with assistance from U.S. CBP, Ashraf Omar Eldarir, a U.S. citizen, is being charged with smuggling Egyptian cultural property into the United States.

Due to COVID-19, SEVP instituted a temporary exemption regarding online courses for the spring and summer semesters. This policy permitted nonimmigrant students to take more online courses than normally permitted by federal regulation to maintain their nonimmigrant status during the COVID-19 emergency.

Paul Belloisi, 52, was arrested Feb. 5 following an investigation by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection at JFK. Belloisi, of Hicksville, New York, is charged with conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute, conspiracy to import cocaine and importation of cocaine.

Lucas Antonio Nord was sentenced July 2 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to 200 months in federal prison. Nord was further ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution and will be required to register as a sex offender and serve the rest of his life on supervised release following completion of his prison term.

ERO officers had lodged a detainer June 19 with Montgomery County Detention Center on Rene Atilio Ramos-Hernandez, 56, an unlawfully present citizen of El Salvador and a convicted criminal alien, following his recent arrest for sexual abuse of a minor.

The indictment alleges Jose Sergio Martinez-Aguilar, 39; Vladimir Pulstilinkov, 44; Miguel Lovos, 31; Sebastian Ramos, 29; and Ricardo Ruiz-Salinas, 43; were members of an international drug trafficking organization. The government charges Martinez-Aguilar of Thermal, California; and Lovos of Indio, California, with three counts of narcotics conspiracy and one count of firearms possession in connection with drug trafficking. Pulstilinkov, also of Indio, is charged with two counts of narcotics conspiracy and one count of firearms possession in connection with drug trafficking. Ramos and Ruiz-Salinas, both of Brooklyn, New York, each are charged with one count of narcotics conspiracy.

Turhan Lemont Armstrong, 50, of Northridge, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who also ordered him to pay $3,305,609 in restitution. Judge Klausner also has ordered the forfeiture of two homes – one in Northridge, the other in Perris – purchased with illicit funds obtained from the scheme.

There are approximately 302,502 barrels of Iranian gasoline currently onboard the Bella, approximately 302,522 barrels of Iranian gasoline currently onboard the Bering, approximately 259,700 barrels of Iranian gasoline currently onboard the Luna, and approximately 298,484 barrels of Iranian gasoline currently onboard the Pandi.

According to court documents, Richard Stephen Terry, 56, of Tampa, used the Internet to entice adult women to allow him to engage in sexual activities with their minor children. Agents identified Terry in multiple online chat rooms designed for individuals who are interested in the sexual exploitation of children, and he used the chat rooms to meet and discuss their interests and tactics.

Bryan C. Mileikis, 33, of Bourne, Massachusetts, was charged in a criminal complaint with one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. Mileikis made an initial appearance via videoconference in federal court July 1.

Michael John Suppes, 46, of Weld County, Colorado, willfully engaged in the business of manufacturing and dealing in firearms and is not a licensed firearm dealer or manufacturer. He exported firearm parts to buyers in other countries without obtaining an export license and he possessed short-barreled rifles that were not registered under the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record as required by law.