News Releases and Statements

Officials with ICE Boston, DEA New England and ATF Boston arrested Vivian Gisselle Soriano-Neto in Providence March 11.

Officers with ICE Boston removed Juliano Araujo Dos Santos Silva from the United States to Brazil March 27 and turned him over to Brazilian authorities.

Following his prison term, German Montano-Peralta, 33, of Nacozari, Sonora, Mexico, will also be on three years of supervised release. Montano-Peralta previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine.

The multiagency operation took place at a local establishment in Barrio Obrero where six Dominican nationals were arrested. All illegal aliens are in ICE custody pending removal.

Trent Collier, 58, of Kearny, New Jersey, was sentenced May 22 at the U.S. District Court in Newark to 109 months for one count of possession of child pornography and one count for the transportation of child pornography.

Houston residents James Michael Brewer aka ‘Creeper’, 33, Jonathan Alvarado aka ‘Joker’, 28, Alexis Delgado aka ‘Chino’, 28, Hector Luis Lopez aka ‘Capulito’, 23, Kylie Rae Alvarado, 24, Ruby Mata, 31, Victor Norris Ellison, 35, Mexi Dyan Garcia aka ‘Mexi’, 31, and Jesus Gomez-Rodriguez aka ‘Jr.’, 33, made their initial appearances in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas May 22 when the indictment was unsealed.

A federal indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Providence charges eight individuals for their roles in orchestrating and executing an elaborate transnational fraud and money laundering scheme targeting elderly citizens in the United States and Canada.

Miguel Sifuentes Jimenez, 36, was turned over to Mexican authorities on the top of the Stanton Street Bridge on the international boundary between the United States and Mexico.

ICE deported Jesus Vazquez Daniel, a 59-year-old illegal alien and accused murderer, from the U.S. May 22.

Felipe Nery Casco Murillo, first came to the attention of immigration authorities, May 13, 2023, when he applied for admission to the United States at the Hildago Port of Entry in Hidalgo, Texas.

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two high-ranking members of the Mexico-based Cartel del Noreste, formerly known as Los Zetas, May 21. CDN, one of Mexico’s most violent drug trafficking organizations and a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, has significant influence over the border region, particularly near the Laredo/Nuevo Laredo entry point.

This operation underscores the effectiveness of interagency collaboration in addressing public safety threats. By combining investigative resources, intelligence sharing, and enforcement capabilities, federal agencies are better equipped to identify, locate, and apprehend aliens who pose risks to the community or have violated federal laws, including immigration statutes.

The seizures, to which ICE Homeland Security Investigations significantly contributed, include more than $200 million in currency and digital assets, over two metric tons of drugs, comprised of 144 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and over 180 firearms. In addition, the United States and international law enforcement partners made 270 arrests of dark web vendors, buyers, and administrators in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States.

On May 19, ICE New York City arrested Marlon Josuel Cruz Fernandez, an illegal alien from the Dominican Republic wanted in his home country for homicide.

Officers with ICE Boston and CBP Boston arrested Julio Soto-Heredia in Boston May 18.

ICE HSI special agents found that the minors, both from Guatemala, had entered the United States in 2023 as unaccompanied children. Border Patrol transferred both UACs to the custody of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Among the defendants charged are Ara Artuni, 41, of Porter Ranch, California who is charged with attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and a rival, Robert Amiryan, 46, of Hollywood, California who is charged with kidnapping.

ICE arrested 275 illegal aliens, including 178 criminal aliens, during a seven-day operation focused on increasing public safety May 11-17.

Luis Alonso Argueta-Diaz, 35, was arrested May 19 in Virginia without incident.

ICE Newark arrested Ludwin Quintero-Rojas, 31, a Colombian national who has a criminal warrant in his home country for aggravated theft and attempted theft with injury. He also has a history of recent shoplifting arrests in the U.S. He is detained at Delaney Hall pending removal proceedings.

These individuals — originally from Venezuela, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala, and Brazil — will be taken into ICE custody once their criminal cases are resolved. Their criminal charges range from solicitation of prostitution to soliciting a minor for sex.

The operation with BCSO, ICE Homeland Security Investigations Panama City, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Miami-Tallahassee field office, the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Panama City Beach Police Department, the Florida Highway Patrol, the Panama City Police Department, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, mainly targeted those who overstayed a visa. During the operation, 18 were arrested in Bay County, and three in Leon County, Florida. Those arrested were from India, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mexico, Guatemala, and Jamaica. Most illegal aliens arrested overstayed temporary visas for tourism and recreation.

ICE removed illegally present Salvadoran national Juan Velasquez from the United States to El Salvador May 15. Velasquez has been convicted of multiple felonies in New York, including rape and sexual abuse of a minor.  

One of the suspected shooters, Venezuelan national Ricardo Granadillo Padilla, 25, was arrested on Feb. 8 by ICE Homeland Security Investigations Chicago and Raleigh, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Raleigh, U.S Border Patrol Tactical Unit, the U.S. Marshals Service, and CBP Air and Marine Operations in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Assaults against ICE officers are up over 400% from this time period last year, and part of that is because politicians like Gov. Walz are careless with their politically motivated rhetoric.