News Releases and Statements

The owner of 'New Deal Shooting Sports' and his family allegedly sold firearms and ammunition knowing they would be smuggled into Mexico.

Two Mexican citizens unlawfully in possession of nine weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition were arrested after a lengthy vehicle pursuit Monday following a joint operation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Pinal County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol.

The agents arrested a pawn shop manager and five employees and seized thousands of rounds of high-capacity firearm magazines.

Ramadan Rama was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for failing to notify a commercial carrier of a firearm and exporting defense articles without a license, following an investigation by U.S. ICE 's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

A fourth person charged in a firearms-trafficking case pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday following a multi-agency investigation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Jesus Francisco Lopez, 35, was convicted following a jury trial April 21. Evidence at the trial showed that between October 2009 and December 2010, Lopez purchased several hundred thousand rounds of various calibers of ammunition.

A convicted ammunition smuggler was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 11 years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of ammunition, and attempting to export ammunition into Mexico.

A resident of Vancouver, British Columbia, convicted on weapons charges and for lying to federal border officers was sentenced to six years and 10 months in federal prison, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Juan Sauceda, 29, a U.S. citizen living in Mexico who conspired with others to smuggle semi-automatic firearms and ammunition into Mexico, was sentenced to three years and four months in federal prison May 13. The investigation was led by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

A federal grand jury indicted a man and a woman on Thursday with conspiracy to possess machine guns, possessing machine guns, and smuggling goods from the United States in connection to a undercover buy conducted in April 2011.

Federal agents executed two search warrants here Friday morning and arrested Gifford Chang, 44, of Honolulu in connection with an ongoing fireworks smuggling investigation tied to a deadly explosion in a storage bunker earlier this month in Waikele Gulch. The agents were with U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)...

Two illegal aliens from Mexico were sentenced on Thursday to federal prison for their roles in attempting to export munitions from the United States without a license, following an investigation conducted by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

A local man was found guilty on Wednesday for being a felon illegally possessing ammunition and attempting to export it into Mexico without a license, announced U.S. Attorney Jose Angel Moreno of the Southern District of Texas.

These Draco AK-47 rifles are among weapons HSI special agents seized during the year-long investigation into a NM firearms trafficking ring.

ICE HSI and ATF agents executed arrests warrants on March 8, after the filing of sealed criminal complaints charging Patrick Regan, 40, and his Colombian-born wife, Ximena del Pilar Echeverry Arias, 25, with conspiracy, smuggling goods from the United States and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

Ramadan Rama, 40, a resident of Fayetteville, N.C., pled guilty in federal court Monday to firearms trafficking charges, including failure to notify a common carrier of a firearm and exporting defense articles without a license.

Steven Neal Greenoe, 37, pled guilty Wednesday in federal court to exporting firearms from the United States without a license and traveling in foreign commerce to deal in firearms without a license, following an international investigation into illegal firearms trafficking and smuggling by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)...

Ranferi Osorio, 27, and his brother, Otilio Osorio, 22, were arrested Feb. 28 at their home on East Colonial Drive in Lancaster, Texas. Each Osorio brother is charged with possessing firearms with an obliterated serial number. An additional defendant, Kelvin Leon Morrison, 25, who is charged in a separate federal criminal complaint, was arrested at his home next door to the Osorio brothers.

A federal grand jury has unsealed multi-count indictments against 17 defendants in five separate cases involving the illegal trafficking of firearms from the United States to Mexico following a joint investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the ATF.

A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment Wednesday charging, Steven Neal Greenoe, 37, a U.S. citizen from Raleigh, with the illegal export of firearms from the United States to the United Kingdom.

Oliver King, who is also known as Hamid Malekpour, 35, was arrested by HSI agents on May 19, 2010, in Ferndale, Wash., after traveling from Canada to McMinnville, Ore., and back to Ferndale over a two-day period.

Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) assigned to the Rio Grande Valley Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) on Tuesday seized 15 AK 47 assault type rifles that were discovered hidden inside a pickup truck.

A local businessman was sentenced on Monday to five years in federal prison for conspiring to smuggle more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition into Mexico.

The arms smugglers allegedly purchased a variety of firearms through fraudulent means and attempted to export them to Mexico.