News Releases and Statements

Between Jan. 1 and Jan. 31, ERO New Orleans conducted targeted operations with assistance from law enforcement partners in Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana, arresting noncitizens identified as public safety or border security threats.

ERO Baltimore arrested an unlawfully present Guatemalan noncitizen who was convicted in 2018 of prostitution and human trafficking charges in Prince George’s County.

Carl Stephen Smith Jr., 33, of Green Cove Springs, faces a minimum mandatory penalty of five years and up to 20 years in federal prison. Smith has remained in custody since his arrest on Jan. 31, 2023.

ICE, working in coordination with DHS and CBP, facilitated removal flights, including single adults and family units to Bangladesh, Central America, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico,  Feb. 5 – 9.

ERO Houston, with assistance from ERO Mexico and the SAFE Task Force, removed Jose De La Cruz Segura-Rojas, a 41-year-old unlawfully present Mexican national, from the United States on Feb. 8. Segura-Rojas is wanted in Mexico for domestic violence.

ERO Boston apprehended un unlawfully present Salvadoran national and registered sex offender Jan. 26 in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The network used more than 50 bank accounts to launder and disperse proceeds obtained through various fraud schemes, including romance scams, lottery scams and business email compromise.

The apprehension of this Portuguese sex offender represented one of five arrests that ERO Boston made as part of a recent national immigration enforcement effort.

The DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking and the Blue Campaign provided updates on victim-centric policies and procedures to the Crime Victim Committee.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership and Department of Homeland Security Office of Partnership and Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs met with Mayor Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio this week.

ICE's ERO officers in the Salt Lake City office with operations in Utah, Nevada, Montana and Las Vegas arrested six fugitives in Moab Feb. 7 during an enforcement operation.  

Chad Williams Wesevich, 40, and his brother Jamie Wesevich, 41, both residents of Corpus Christi, were sentenced Feb. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to serve 360, 240 and 60 months, respectively, for conspiracy to manufacture and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Jorge Henry Clarke Figueroa, 45, departed Salt Lake City International Airport in Salt Lake City and arrived at the Comodoro Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport in Santiago, Chile.

According to court documents, a Brewster County sheriff’s deputy stopped Ana Cristina Alarcon Rios, 24, of Chihuahua, for speeding along Highway 90 in Alpine.

Francisco “Frank” B. Burrola, who has over 30 years of federal law enforcement experience — 25 of those years on the Southwest Border — was recently selected as the SAC of HSI Arizona.

ICE's ERO officers apprehended 26 unlawfully present noncitizens with pending charges or convictions for murder, homicide and assault against children during a nationwide law enforcement effort that ran from Jan. 16-28.

ICE, working in coordination with DHS and CBP, facilitated removal flights, including single adults and family units to Bangladesh, Central America, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico,  Feb. 5 – 7.

Christian Noel Medina Torres, 35, of Lakeland, faces a minimum mandatory penalty of 10 years in federal prison.

If convicted on all counts, Mirtza Ocana, 38, faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

Officers with ICE's ERO Seattle removed Igor Lekomtsev, 45, a citizen of Russia, Jan. 26.

ERO Boston arrested a Honduran national and member of the notorious 18th Street gang who has multiple U.S. convictions and is wanted in his home country for drug distribution charges.

An investigation conducted by HSI Baltimore field office and DOD OIG, DCIS Mid-Atlantic field office led to En-Wei Eric Chang pleading guilty to a federal conspiracy charge, related to the export of defense materials to Iran.

Fredi Zagala-Servin, 40, of Kaufman, was sentenced Feb. 7 to 97 months in prison for being a longtime leader and organizer of a human smuggling organization that smuggled hundreds of undocumented noncitizens from Laredo to San Antonio inside semitractor-trailers.

According to court documents, Armando Leonardo Moreno aka Cholo, conspired with other TCO members on or around Sept. 13, 2021, to kidnap a subject from an El Paso stash house.

Sally Renae Smith, 54, was sentenced Feb. 6 to 292 months in prison. She pleaded guilty July 21, 2022.