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December 16, 2019
|Human Smuggling/Trafficking

Federico Espinosa-Flores, 50, from Donna, Texas, was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison followed by one year of supervised release for knowingly and intentionally conspiring to unlawfully transport illegal aliens.

December 16, 2019
|Child Exploitation

John Henry Bevel Jr., 44, from Las Cruces, was also ordered to pay $25,000 in restitution to one of his victims.

December 16, 2019
|Operational

Special agents, computer forensic analysts and deportation officers from the HSI Mobile, Pensacola, Panama City, Tallahassee, Tampa and Headquarters, in addition to ERO officers from Jacksonville and Tampa, are supporting the investigation into the active shooter at NAS Pensacola.

December 16, 2019
|Enforcement and Removal

Miguel Meza-Fuentes was removed from the United States to Honduras via ICE Air.

December 13, 2019
|Enforcement and Removal

Olga Marina Franco del Cid, 35, an illegal alien from Guatemala who formerly resided in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, has been charged with illegal re-entry, identification document fraud, and false representation of social security account number.

December 12, 2019
|Narcotics, Child Exploitation
In FY 2019, HSI Norfolk, as the federal law enforcement lead of the Hampton Roads Human Trafficking Task Force, also continued its efforts to combat human trafficking in the region. In FY 2019, the task force made 36 arrests, prosecuted 11 cases and identified 48 victims. HSI uses a victim-centered approach in its trafficking investigations, where equal value is placed on the identification and stabilization of victims as the prosecution of the traffickers.
December 12, 2019
|Human Smuggling/Trafficking

Albino Vargas-Hernandez, a 48-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, and Rene Camacho, a 47-year-old U.S. citizen residing in Houston, both pleaded guilty Dec. 12 to conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens. A third man who is also illegally present in the U.S., 21-year-old Mexican national Hiram Lamarca-Gonzalez, entered his guilty plea Dec. 4.

December 12, 2019
|Operational

With the objective of bolstering relationships with key community partners, HSI San Juan recruited participants from diverse employment areas including media, congressional affairs, non-government agencies, and the financial industry to attend the academy. HSI employees nominated members of the community who they felt would be suitable candidates.

December 12, 2019
|Narcotics

The task force, which launched in April 2019, targets drug trafficking organizations that are making the streets of Kansas City more violent by importing large quantities of methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl, and other drugs from Mexico and elsewhere.

December 12, 2019
|Enforcement and Removal

Jose Ruiz-Alvarado, 52, a citizen of El Salvador, was previously removed by ICE on two separate occasions in March 2002 and January 2008.

December 11, 2019
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud

HSI Boston Acting Special Agent in Charge Jason Molina and CBP Director of Field Operations for Boston Michael Denning provided an overview of the work that HSI and CBP do to combat counterfeit items and products that violate intellectual property rights.

December 11, 2019
|Enforcement and Removal
While the numbers of individuals apprehended or found inadmissible at the border nationwide increased 68% over the previous fiscal year, the total number of aliens arrested by ICE dropped by nearly 10% compared to FY 2018.
December 10, 2019
|Human Rights Violators
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC) commemorates Human Rights Day December 10, the same day the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights celebrates the proposition that freedom, justice and peace in the world are fundamental rights and that all individuals are entitled to equality.
December 10, 2019
|Child Exploitation

Daniel Ontiveros, 61, of Kansas City, Kansas, pleaded guilty Nov. 25 to one count of child sexual exploitation in Wyandotte County, Kansas. Ontiveros has a prior conviction for attempted possession of child pornography in February 2013 in Missouri. As a result of this conviction, he was placed on the state’s sex offender’s registry. He also has a conviction for enticing a child in April 2013.

December 10, 2019
|Child Exploitation

David Vogelpohl, 22, of Vista, California, was sentenced before U.S. District Court Judge C.J. Williams, following a June 20, 2019, guilty plea in which he pleaded to one count of sexual exploitation of a child. At his plea hearing, Vogelpohl admitted that in 2018 he persuaded, induced, or enticed a juvenile female victim to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions.

December 9, 2019
|Human Smuggling/Trafficking
While human trafficking can occur in a variety of scenarios and industries, indicators of trafficking activities often look the same across cases. Educating the public to recognize the signs is crucial to identifying victims and bringing traffickers to justice. HSI developed the Strategic Trafficking Outreach Program (S.T.O.P.) to raise awareness, as well as educate the public on how to report instances of suspected trafficking.
December 9, 2019
|Child Exploitation

According to the Department’s civil complaint, José Vilchis, a native of Mexico, sexually assaulted girls at various gymnastics training centers in the greater Chicago area over a span of decades.

December 6, 2019
|Child Exploitation

Nationally, HSI arrests for child exploitation are up 19% from last year, 3,957 for FY 19 compared to 3,191 for FY 18. The number of indictments, convictions, and children rescued from child exploitation or identified as victims also increased. Locally, there was a 28.9% increase in convictions for child exploitation cases in New Jersey, from 84 in FY 18 to 107 in FY 19. In addition, six victims of child exploitation were identified and assisted by HSI Newark.

December 6, 2019
|Enforcement and Removal

Bruno Padua-Silva entered the United States April 1, 2018, as a nonimmigrant, but did not depart in accordance with the terms of his admission. Brazil issued a warrant for Padua’s arrest Sept. 20, 2018, for the charge of homicide.

December 6, 2019
|Enforcement and Removal

The arrestees include nationals from the Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, and Russia. ERO deportation officers made arrests in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Flushing, Forest Hills, Manhattan, New Rochelle, Ridgewood, and Staten Island. All of those arrested are currently detained in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge.

December 6, 2019
|Operational

Notable among the released stats from FY 2019 was a surge in the number of criminal arrests made and the value of counterfeit goods seized from the previous year.

December 6, 2019
|Child Exploitation

ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Cleveland special agents and partner agencies brought charges against 47 accused child predators in 2019, as part of the agency's ongoing international effort known as Operation Predator. The arrests represented an increase of nearly 10 percent from 2018 and accounted for nearly 20 percent of all of the office’s investigative work. 

December 6, 2019
|Human Smuggling/Trafficking, Child Exploitation
Northern California HSI agents relentless work on criminal investigations resulted in more than 1,000 criminal arrests, according to fiscal year 2019 data. Nationally, HSI agents arrested more than 37,500 criminals.
December 6, 2019
|Narcotics

The opioid epidemic is devastating communities across the United States. Drugs such as fentanyl and others laced with unknown and dangerous substances are destroying lives at an alarming rate.

December 6, 2019
|Operational
HSI's investigative strategies resulted in a record-high 37,547 criminal arrests, almost a 10 percent increase from FY18, as well as the seizure of more than $775 million in currency and assets from criminal proceeds.
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