News Releases and Statements

Pedro Lopez-Rocha, a Mexican national who arrived in Southern California on board a marijuana-laden panga-style boat that came ashore north of Malibu in mid-January, has received a nearly six-year prison term.

Top 5 news stories for the week ending July 13, 2012

Two men accused of creating a global network of shell companies to deceive U.S. companies into supplying nuclear-related materials to Iran were indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia following an international investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

More than 100 representatives from the government and private sectors, including high-level law enforcement representatives from the U.S. and Mexico, convened in Los Angeles Thursday for a binational summit to strategize on ways to enhance existing efforts to combat human trafficking in both countries.

Geoffrey B. Roose was sentenced Friday to 10 months in federal prison for attempting to sell export restricted military-grade equipment to overseas buyers in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. Roose pleaded guilty in March following his February federal indictment,which stemmed from an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations.

James M. Woosley, the former acting director of ICE's Office of Intelligence, was sentenced today to 20 months in prison for defrauding the U.S. government. Woosley defrauded the government of more than $180,000 in a scheme involving fraudulent travel vouchers, and time and attendance claims.

Dino Rambharose, a New York City man who was arrested for resisting efforts to deport him multiple times, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison. The sentence is the result of an investigation by ICE's Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO). On three separate occasions, Rambharose resisted being deported.

Lance Howard Mayes has been indicted on federal charges for receiving child pornography, following a probe by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Clove Police Department.

Albert Silva Hernandez Jr., 43, of Las Vegas, is charged in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury July 10, with eight counts of sexual exploitation of a child and three counts of transporting child pornography. The indictment alleges the defendant exchanged sexually explicit text messages and photographs with a minor girl.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) seized 70 websites that were illegally selling counterfeit merchandise.

Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and officers from other law enforcement agencies seized more than $540,000 in counterfeit Major League Baseball (MLB) merchandise during a two-week operation ending with Tuesday night's MLB All-Star Game.

Christopher Daves made his initial appearance in federal court Thursday on an indictment charging him with possessing child pornography in a case being investigated by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

A Mexican fugitive who was extradited back to Mississippi to face human smuggling charges was sentenced to more than three years in prison Wednesday, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

ICE returned 14 stolen and looted cultural paintings and artifacts to the government of Peru at a repatriation ceremony in Washington, D.C. The items were recovered in five separate investigations by special agents of ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in New York; West Virginia; Wilmington, Delaware; and Austin and Houston, Texas.

Michael Gavel III, 38, of Baltimore, was sentenced July 11 by U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg to seven years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, for distributing child pornography.

Douglas Allen Brown was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison Tuesday for possessing child pornography, following an undercover investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Brown and co-defendant Michael Bruce Hays possessed more than 16,000 illicit photos and over 300 videos.

Five Arizona businesses representing the steel fabrication, aviation, construction, landscaping and metal finishing industries became the latest employers to partner with ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to strengthen their hiring practices, reduce fraud and ensure they employ a legal workforce.

They were engaged in a bitter custody dispute, and the father was afraid that the mother of his children was going to take them out of the country. His suspicions were confirmed when he found reservations - one-way tickets to Jordan - for his wife and their two children.

Michael John Davidson, 41, of New Brunswick, N.J., was charged Tuesday with attempting to board an aircraft with a dangerous weapon. Davidson was arrested following a multi-agency investigation involving special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

In a move designed to bolster partnerships and information sharing on intellectual property crime, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) joined the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) to become the center's 21st partner agency.

Henry Rosenau, 61, of Armstrong, British Columbia, was indicted in 2006 following a cross-border investigation dubbed "Operation Frozen Timber" led by ICE's HSI.

A federal grand jury has indicted nine individuals charged with conspiring to distribute more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana and with conspiring to conduct financial transactions to conceal the source and ownership of the proceeds of the drug distribution.

Frank James Abston of Houston, Texas was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for his participation in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine in Alabama, following an investigation by with ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Mobile County Sheriff's Office.

Cameron Jackson was sentenced Wednesday for possession with the intent to distribute crack cocaine and heroin in a case investigated by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with the assistance of the FBI and Scranton Police Department in a joint task force which is investigating illegal alien street gang activity in Northeastern Pa.