News Releases and Statements

An investigation by Homeland Security Investigations New York, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Chicago and federal partners, resulted in the unsealing of an indictment charging Naasón Joaquín García, Rosa Sosa, Azalia Rangel García, Eva García De Joaquín, Joram Núñez Joaquín and Silem García Peña with sexual, financial and related criminal conduct victimizing members of the La Luz del Mundo Church over many years.

Michael Sang Correa, 46, was sentenced Aug. 22 to an extraordinary 810 months in prison after being convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit torture and five counts of torture.

A federal grand jury has returned an eight-count indictment charging naturalized U.S. citizens Benedict Nwana Kuah, 51, and Pascal Kikishy Wongbi, 52, with organizing, directing, and financing kidnappings, bombings, and killings in their native country, the Republic of Cameroon.

ICE Homeland Security Investigations New York has arrested an alleged MS-13 associate wanted in El Salvador for aggravated extortion and threats to injure a person.

ICE HSI Detroit, in coordination with multiple federal, state, and local partners, is leading an investigation into an international auto theft ring that has resulted in criminal charges against eight Michigan men.

ICE Houston arrested 822 criminal aliens, transnational gang members, child predators, foreign fugitives and other egregious immigration offenders during a weeklong operation between Aug. 17 and Aug. 23 focused on enhancing public safety in Southeast Texas.

An ICE investigation has led to federal charges against Luis Enrique Villegas Brownell, a Mexican citizen without legal status, and his girlfriend, Kassandra Sanchez, a U.S. citizen, for identity theft and multiple federal crimes.

A South Los Angeles man and tow truck driver was arrested Sept. 2 on a federal criminal complaint charging him with stealing government property by illegally towing a law enforcement vehicle during an active immigration enforcement operation earlier this month.

ICE Homeland Security Investigations joined U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi to announce 12 individuals charged in an international conspiracy involving alien smuggling, asylum fraud and money laundering schemes that brought thousands of illegal aliens into the United States for profit.

Notorious gang leader wanted for aggravated kidnapping, aggravated extortion, aggravated homicide, deprivation of liberty, involvement in terrorist organizations, and conspiracy to murder.

ICE special agents, in collaboration with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, executed a federal search warrant at a company on Sept. 4 as part of an active, ongoing criminal investigation.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed Omar Alberto Almodobar Mondragon, a 29-year-old illegal alien, Sep. 4.

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations removed suspected war criminal and criminal illegal alien Charles Emile Mbayo from the United States to Sierra Leone Aug. 20. Mbayo is a former high-ranking member of the National Provisioning Ruling Council, a military junta that ruled Sierra Leone after overthrowing President Joseph Momoh in a coup on April 29, 1992.

Officers with ICE Boston removed Albert George Davis, 59, from the United States to Jamaica Aug. 21 and turned him over to Jamaican authorities, who sought his arrest for the rape of a child in 2020.

ICE Homeland Security Investigations special agents arrested Felix Ebdiel Muñiz-Rivera, 20, of Camuy, for producing and possessing child sexual abuse material Aug. 29.

ICE San Diego, in coordination with the U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations, arrested Ezequiel Cruz-Rodriguez a previously deported illegal alien with an extensive criminal history. Cruz, a documented member of the Logan Heights gang, was residing unlawfully in the United States with his partner, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient who operates an in-home daycare.

Mehrzad Asadi Eidivand pleaded guilty to possessing firearms and ammunition and his wife, Linet Vartannivartanians, pleaded guilty to threatening federal law enforcement officers Aug. 21.

Lorenzo Antonio Batrez Vargas, a 32-year-old citizen of Mexico in ICE custody, was pronounced dead by a doctor at the Mountain Vista Medical Center in Mesa, Arizona, at 7:02 a.m. Mountain Standard Time on Aug. 31. The preliminary cause of death is unknown and remains under investigation.

ICE arrested and plans to remove Phillip Harkins, a convicted murder and criminal illegal alien from Scotland, upon his release from the Florida Department of Corrections on Aug. 18.

Special agents from ICE Homeland Security Investigations working in partnership with officers from the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department arrested an illegal 35-year-old Mexican alien who was previously charged with sex crimes against a Virginia child.

ICE arrested Raul Enrique Pargas Rodriquez, a 31-year-old alien and foreign fugitive from Venezuela, Aug. 14.

ICE arrested Robert Reid Mendez Jimenez, a Dominican national, who is charged with child predatory offense Aug. 13.

During the operation, ICE officers apprehended Oscar Alexis Martinez-Lopez, a Salvadoran illegal alien and suspected MS-13 gang member who was previously arrested in El Salvador for homicide, and Delfin Amaya-Peres, a Honduran illegal alien whose criminal record includes convictions for assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in 2011.

Delegates gathered at HSI Kansas City for a detailed briefing on how the agency works to dismantle criminal networks involved in human smuggling, trafficking and other forms of transnational crime. The group also learned about innovative investigative strategies, interagency collaboration and the critical role of U.S. law enforcement in developing effective policy solutions.

To continue successes in removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from the United States, ICE is focusing recruitment efforts on ICE officers and general attorneys with a major hiring event Aug. 26 and 27, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Arlington Esports Stadium.