News Releases and Statements

Special agents with ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), in close partnership with local law enforcement, arrested 25 individuals during a week-long operation that ended late Tuesday. This is the latest local effort in an ongoing national ICE initiative to target foreign-born gang members.

A previously convicted sex offender from Huntington Beach, Calif., pleaded guilty Thursday to production of child pornography and agreed to serve a 26-year prison term for filming an 8-year-old girl engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

According to the plea agreement, in September and November 2010, Larry W. Warner, Jr., 33, of Joppa, Md., posted advertisements in an online website seeking girls' underwear for him to use in an act which Warner described in a sexually explicit manner.

Jose Sarinana-Placencia, the alleged leader of a drug smuggling organization accused of moving thousands of pounds of marijuana between Maricopa, Ariz., and the Phoenix metropolitan area was arrested following a major multi-agency enforcement operation led by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Pinal County Sheriff's Office (PCSO).

An indictment charging five former airline employees for their role in drug smuggling operations out of U.S. airports was announced today following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

In two unrelated immigration cases, two men received substantial prison sentences following their convictions for illegally re-entering the United States after being previously deported, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas.

A Maryland man was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy to produce and transfer Maryland driver's licenses and identification cards without lawful authority.

Efrain Espinoza-Quintana, a Mexican citizen wanted in his native country for his involvement in a fight in May 2006 in which he is accused of killing a man with a handgun, was turned over to prosecutors from the Mexican Attorney General's Office at the border crossing here Tuesday by agents from ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

Two former jail officials and one alleged member of the 'Raza Unida' prison gang have been sentenced to prison for conspiring to bribe public officials, announced United States Attorney Jose Angel Moreno on Wednesday.

The former owner of a Massachusetts-based asbestos abatement training school was sentenced to more than seven years in a federal prison Tuesday in a case investigated jointly with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

A Mexican citizen was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison Tuesday following his guilty plea in a violent human smuggling case investigated by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). David Alejo-Ortiz led a violent group of alien smugglers who, in May 2008, physically, verbally and sexually abused at least 23 hostages in Phoenix.

A woman from Spain was sentenced to a year and a day in prison on Wednesday for her role in illegally importing more than five kilograms of cocaine into the United States.

Timothy Whitaker, 46, of Baltimore, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz. Judge Motz ordered that upon his release from prison, Whitaker is required to register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

Two women have pleaded guilty to marijuana trafficking crimes. The investigation is being conducted by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

The z-angle pre-Columbian feasting bowl was created by Mayan Indians. It is nearly 1800 years old.

Veniamin Gonikman pleaded guilty Tuesday to crimes related to an international conspiracy to compel women to work in exotic dance clubs in the Detroit-area. He is the ninth and final member of the charged conspiracy to be convicted. The investigation was conducted by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Juan Arroyo-Pantoja, 33, of Wilmington, N.C., was sentenced today to 44 months in prison after pleading guilty to participating in a racketeering conspiracy with cells in 19 cities within the United States and 11 states, including three cells in Virginia. The conspiracy was investigated by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Roger Elkins, 45, of Bossier City, La., pleaded guilty to the distribution and receipt of child pornography.

HSI teams with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to prevent child exploitation throughout New England. The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces help state and local law enforcement agencies develop an effective response to cyber enticement and child pornography cases.

Alleged members and associates of the Bloods gang in Newburgh, N.Y. and members of a related crack cocaine dealing conspiracy were charged with racketeering, narcotics, robbery and firearms offenses. These charges stem from an investigation conducted by the FBI with assistance ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the New York State...

A criminal complaint unsealed today in federal court charges a Raleigh man, 68, with falsely assuming and pretending to be an officer acting under the authority of the United States and, in that capacity, demanding and obtaining money.

Three and a half hours after departing John F. Kennedy International Airport, on what seemed to be an uneventful flight, ICE Immigration Enforcement Agents Lonnie Cody and Carl Ulmer were approached by a flight attendant, asking for assistance with an uncooperative passenger.

Theodore Robert Larsen was arraigned Monday in federal court charged with possessing child pornography. This indictment resulted from an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Ronnie Lee Neely of York, South Carolina was sentenced Tuesday to serve 240 months in prison for cocaine and crack cocaine trafficking charges. The case was investigated by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) and the York County Sheriff's Office.

Richard Mullen of Dickinson, N.D, who pleaded guilty to charges of receiving child pornography, was sentenced on Monday to nine years in federal prison. This investigation was led by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). He had downloaded more than 16,000 images depicting children being sexually abused.