News Releases and Statements

Felipe Orduna-Torres, 30, also known as Cholo, Chuequito, and Negro and Armando Gonzalez-Ortega, 55, also known as El Don and Don Gon were found guilty by a jury for their roles in the mass casualty alien smuggling event.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement joined the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in announcing sanctions against Jumilca Sandivel Hernandez Perez, a prominent leader of the Lopez Human Smuggling Organization, March 18.

ICE removed Cecilio Lopez Vasquez, 40, March 17 to his home country of Guatemala where he is wanted for rape.

Herbert Redholtz, a Southern California native, previously served as a city commissioner for the city of West Covina, California, and was part of the Community and Senior Services Commission.

Travis Morgan Slaughter and Tripp Charles Slaughter were sentenced to 41 months and 21 months in federal prison, respectively, for their crimes.

ICE arrested Gedion Masunsu, 28, an illegal Ugandan alien charged in Massachusetts with two counts of assault and battery on a pregnant victim and destruction of property Jan. 25 in Waltham.

ICE along with the FBI, DEA and U.S. Probation, conducted a multi-agency operation March 11 targeting the disruption of cartel related narcotics and firearms distribution as well as others identified as criminal threats to the South Lake Tahoe, California community.

ICE arrested Mexican national and criminal alien Gilberto Guadalupe Guevara-Barboza, 26, upon his release from the Federal Correctional Institution in Ray Brook, New York, March 14.

ICE arrested Julio Cesar Henao-Cordoba, a 38-year-old citizen of Colombia wanted by law enforcement authorities in Panama for aggravated rape of a child, outside his residence in State College, March 14.

ICE apprehended an illegally present 29-year-old Brazilian alien convicted in his native country for manslaughter while driving a motor vehicle Jan. 25 in Waltham.

ICE removed Orbelin Benitez-Carbajal, a 49-year-old previously deported criminal alien convicted of manslaughter, to Mexico March 17.

Arrests included illegal aliens from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Cuba, India and Palau.

Sushil Kumar, 35, and three others were indicted in connection with a scheme to smuggle illegal aliens across the northern border for profit. The group was connected to two smuggling episodes in November and December 2023.

The multi-agency operation took place at an illegal cockfight location. Three of the arrested were charged for criminal activity.

Entering the United States without authorization is a violation of federal law, and those who do so may be subject to administrative arrest and, in some cases, criminal prosecution.

ICE apprehended Sostenes Perez-Lopez, 59, an illegal Guatemalan alien charged with two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child in Brighton, Feb. 18.

ICE removed Miguel Antonio Verdugo-Garcia, a 49-year-old Mexican fugitive wanted in Mexico for homicide, March 13.

ICE, with assistance from the FBI, arrested Douglas De Souza Gontijo, 34, a native and citizen of Brazil wanted by Brazilian authorities for drug trafficking related crimes, March 13.

As a result of the operation, 11 aliens were identified and arrested as working on the port and amenable to removal proceedings. The aliens came from Mexico, Nicaragua and Ecuador.

ICE, with assistance from local and federal partners, apprehended Ismail Sayik, a citizen of Turkey illegally present in the United States, March 4 during a routine enforcement operation in New Jersey.

ICE arrested illegally present Roshan Tamang, a citizen of Bhutan, March 11, who had a final order of removal.

An investigation by ICE led to Tomas Juarez-Santos, 45, a four-time removed criminal illegal alien from Mexico with two prior convictions for illegal reentry after deportation, being sentenced March 11 to more than a year in federal prison for illegally reentering the United States.

ICE apprehended Ismael Efrain Lopez-Bautista, 43, a citizen of Guatemala, March 11 for illegal reentry after deportation in Vineland, New Jersey.

ICE arrested an illegal Turkish national charged with raping a Massachusetts resident when officers with ICE Boston apprehended Bilal Karayigit, 26, in Burlington Feb. 19.

ICE deported Baltazar Pantoja Calderon, a 43-year-old eight-time removed criminal alien convicted of kidnapping and several other criminal offenses in the U.S., to his home country of Mexico March 13.