News Releases and Statements

Donald J. Jones, III, 46, of Pemberton, N.J., was taken into custody after traveling from his home in New Jersey to Rhode Island in an alleged scheme to engage in sexual activity with a minor in a case investigated jointly with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

An airline baggage handler was sentenced Thursday to 60 months in prison for his role in attempting to import drugs aboard a U.S. Airways flight from Jamaica.

A lawyer practicing in Laredo, Texas, pleaded guilty on Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Irma C. Ramirez to a one-count Information charging interstate travel in aid of racketeering, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas.

Seven men have been sentenced in Charlotte for drug trafficking-related offenses, following an investigation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents, with the assistance of the Union County Sheriff's Office.

Earlier this year, U.S. ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata was tragically shot and killed in the line of duty while driving between Monterrey and Mexico City, Mexico. Jaime Zapata's hometown of Brownsville, Texas, held a special ceremony to rename a street close to Zapata's parents' home, Jaime J. Zapata Avenue.

ICE serves on the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT), one of the world's largest international child protection taskforces.

Robert Emmet Horn, 45, was sentenced to 80 months in federal prison on April 8 by U.S. District Judge Marcia Crone, after he pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on Nov. 22. A federal grand jury returned an indictment on Oct. 29, 2010 charging Horn with child pornography violations.

In a chartered flight that originated in Miami Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) returned 73 aliens, including 69 convicted criminals, to the Dominican Republic. Those removed included three convicted of murder, two convicted of sex offenses and one who was wanted for murder in the Dominican Republic.

Agents from the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation, assisted by local police from Philadelphia and Bucks County, Pa., along with U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), have filed criminal charges against twelve suspects accused of operating a wide-reaching drug network based in southeastern Pennsylvania.

U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents, working jointly with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) partners arrested, arrested two suspected Dominican Republic smugglers Thursday. Law enforcement also seized a 20-foot yola (boat) and 155 pounds of cocaine, with an approximately street value of $1.6 million.

"Portnoy Messinger Pearl & Associates based in Syosset, N.Y., has signed an IMAGE agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Short for ""ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers,"" IMAGE provides businesses an opportunity to strengthen hiring practices and ensure a legal workforce."

A Louisiana resident received $6,497.07 from special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) on Thursday, following a successful joint investigation against fraudulent telemarketers.

Matthew R. Fisher, 33, teaches at Reynoldsburg High School and coaches the district's eighth-grade girls basketball team. HSI agents and Franklin County ICAC officers executed the search warrant, seized a computer and charged Fisher in a federal complaint. According to an affidavit filed by HSI agents investigating known child porn websites...

In less than one week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, along with U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents, arrested two Nigerian men allegedly attempting to smuggle heroin inside their persons. Both were arrested at Washington Dulles International Airport.

Three members of an Orange County family who operate an immigration consulting business that caters primarily to Indian nationals were arrested Wednesday morning on immigration fraud charges for allegedly filing bogus marriage and work visa petitions on behalf of aliens who paid fees as high as $60,000.

It's 2007. An American gentleman is traveling in Buenos Aires, browsing the city's antique district for treasures. A Rolling Stones fan, he stumbles upon a unique piece of artwork depicting Mick Jagger, which he purchases for $2,000 to display in his Phoenix, Ariz., home.

Stephen W. Siktberg, 32, was arrested by HSI agents on Oct. 29, 2010, at his home in Beacon, N.Y. He entered his guilty pleas before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Margaret Smith in White Plains.

Hong Wei Xian, a/k/a "Harry Zan," 32, and Li Li, a/k/a "Lea Li," 33, both from the People's Republic of China (PRC), were charged in a two-count indictment. They are charged with conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act to smuggle goods from the United States and the attempted export of United States Munitions List items in violation of the Arms Export Control Act.

En Wang, 32, the owner of Jiao Long USAO Inc., a Houston-based company, was sentenced on March 28 in absentia by U.S. District Court Judge Vanessa Gilmore to 33 months in federal prison without parole.

A Nebraska resident was sentenced Tuesday to 8.5 years in prison after pleading guilty to engaging in a child exploitation enterprise. The case was investigated U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Department of Justice's High Technology Investigative Unit of the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.

James O'Carroll, 59, pleaded guilty in U. S. District Court on Monday to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance. This followed the Nov. 21, 2010 seizure in Gulfport, Miss by ICE HSI special agents and other law enforcement of 4,497 pounds of marijuana from the motor vessel Sarah Moira, an 80-foot sailboat...

Four men involved in a shootout and hostage-taking involving a woman and her three-year old-daughter in north Columbus in December 2009 were sentenced in U.S. District Court today.

"ICE is resuming limited removal of convicted criminal Haitians with final orders of removal, in coordination with the Government of Haiti and the U.S. Department of State. The removal of Haitian nationals will be conducted in a manner that comports with the March 2, 2011 ICE memo entitled ""Civil Immigration Enforcement..."""

"Chun Yan Lin, 44, of Doraville, Ga., was sentenced Thursday in federal court for conspiring to transport and harbor illegal aliens, following a joint investigation by U.S. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Lin owned an employment agency called ""Lucky,""..."

Gabriel Rios, 20, of Corpus Christi, Texas, was convicted April 1 on eight counts of possessing child pornography, and he was acquitted of two counts of receiving and distributing child pornography. The verdicts came after three days of trial testimony from both law enforcement and civilian witnesses.