News Releases and Statements

ICE's HSI special agents, working jointly with Puerto Rico Police Department officers in an operation dubbed Wild Surf, arrested 13 alleged members of a drug trafficking organization responsible for the importation of multi-kilograms of cocaine into the US Wednesday in Aguadilla and San Sebastian, Puerto Rico.

Cask LLC, a female-owned small business that offers administrative and technology services to clients in multiple sectors has become the latest San Diego-based employer to partner with ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in a program designed to strengthen hiring practices and combat the unlawful employment of illegal aliens.

Paul Henry Brown was sentenced June 27 by U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles Jr. to 262 months in prison followed by lifetime supervised release.

Zeljko Savija was arrested and charged with using fraudulent immigration documents. Savija failed to disclose certain military service in the armed forces of the former Republic of Yugoslavia. The charge is the result of an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

A Phoenix man was ordered detained until trial by a federal judge Thursday following his indictment in an alleged mortgage fraud conspiracy spanning more than 10 years and involving the fraudulent purchase and sale of real estate properties throughout the Valley.

According to the Seattle Export Assistance Center, Washington businesses are finding that emerging markets around the world offer some of the best opportunities for making new sales and are adjusting their export strategies accordingly.

Jesse Osmun, 32, of Milford, Conn., has admitted that he sexually abused four minor girls, all under the age of 6, while he was a volunteer with the Peace Corps in South Africa.

Twenty-two individuals were charged and arrests were made in six states Wednesday in connection with an alleged scheme to fraudulently obtain driver's licenses for illegal aliens and other ineligible individuals, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Eleven north Texas residents were indicted for their roles in a scheme to smuggle firearms to Mexico.

Shu Bei Yuan, a former Chinese business agent for several honey-import companies, was sentenced Friday to two years in federal prison for illegally importing falsely labeled honey to avoid paying nearly $1.5 million in U.S. anti-dumping duties. This sentence resulted from an investigation conducted by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Charles Marquez and Martha Jimenez Sanchez are scheduled to have detention hearings Wednesday in El Paso federal court in connection with a prostitution scheme involving a minor. The defendants recruited females in Mexico by placing ads in a Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, newspaper offering jobs in the United States...

The El Paso Intelligence Center is an information focal point, collecting and analyzing interdiction reports and multi-source intelligence to identify and track trafficking activities and organizations, identify and fill intelligence gaps, and provide tactical intelligence to law enforcement officers in the field.

Trevor J. Arias appeared in federal court Tuesday and pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography. He admitted that in August 2011, he knowingly received a file, via the Internet, that depicted a female child engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Larry Bean of Gerrardstown, W. Va., pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge of possession of child pornography, following an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Bean had more than 17,000 images of child pornography found on a seized computer, media, floppy discs and cell phone.

Two Mexican nationals, Miguel Marquez-Jimenez and Sergio Morales-Jimenez, have pleaded guilty in federal court to transporting illegal aliens from Houston, Texas to West Virginia.. The case was investigated by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Putnam County, W. Va. Sheriff's Department.

Richard Phillips was sentenced Thursday for attempting to export high-technology commodities to Iran. This sentencing comes as a result of an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Defense Criminal Investigative Services (DCIS).

A Bronx couple, Inocencia Ortega and Luciano Mendez-Roja, pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct that led to the sexual exploitation of a child. This was the result of an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Ortega and Mendez-Rojas engaged in sexually explicit conduct while their minor child filmed videos of the conduct...

A Mexican national, Omar Quezada-Alcala, was sentenced Monday to 15 years eight months in prison for cocaine trafficking. This investigation was conducted by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Quezada-Alcala admitted he was going to be paid to pick up a car and deliver it to an unknown location and that he had done it before.

A 25-year-old Cameroon citizen is in federal custody on wire fraud charges related to a fraudulent scheme to sell frozen chicken feet, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Louisiana State University Police Department.

Ruben Cuellar, 42, of Shallowater, Texas, faces a statutory sentence of not less than five or more than 20 years in prison, up to a $250,000 fine, and up to a lifetime of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings ordered a presentence investigation report with a sentencing date to be set after the report is completed.

A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to willfully reproduce and distribute tens of thousands of infringing copies of copyrighted works without permission, including infringing copies of movies before they were commercially released on DVD.

Six people were arrested Wednesday and charged with harboring illegal aliens as part of a conspiracy that allegedly obtained motor vehicle registrations, license plates and titles for illegal aliens.

According to documents filed in the case, Amber Schmidt, of Garland, Texas, used cell phones and text messages to send child pornography images to others. One of the individuals to whom she sent child pornography was Gary Lee Jackson, 26, also of Garland.

The nearly complete skeleton of a dinosaur was forfeited today to ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). This action stems from an investigation by HSI and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. The skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Bataar dinosaur was looted from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

Santos Botello was charged Thursday with conspiracy to commit marriage fraud. Botello was allegedly arranging sham marriages between foreign nationals and U.S. citizens for profit since 2002. The investigation was conducted ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with the assistance of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).