News and reports from the Department of Homeland Security.

Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents prevented a narcotic smuggling attempt in Laredo, Texas. On Dec. 4, Border Patrol agents assigned to the Laredo South Station were working their assigned duties when they noticed people attempting to cross from Mexico into the U.S. At the same time, Border Patrol agents observed a vehicle leaving an area on Riverfront Street.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents worked with the Albuquerque Police Department’s (APD) VICE Unit to rescue 69 people who were held against their will and arrested a man for human smuggling on Nov. 29. APD’s detectives and HSI special agents are members of the New Mexico Human Trafficking Task Force.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, commonly called ICE and ERO, respectively, arrested an Ecuadorian fugitive in Spring Valley, New York on Dec. 1; the man is wanted for rape in Ecuador.

A Mexican national wanted in his home country for rape was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations officers, commonly called ICE and ERO, respectively, in Rowland Heights, California Dec. 6.

A jury convicted a West Plains man Dec. 6 of sexual exploitation of a 13-month-old child and distributing child pornography following a joint investigation between Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force and the West Plains, Mo., Police Department.

A Kansas man was sentenced to more than 28 years in prison for conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child (production of child pornography) following a joint investigation between Homeland Security Investigations, commonly called HSI, and the Kansas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) welcomed seven new forensic analysts into its ranks during the Human Exploitation Rescue Operation Child-Rescue Corps (HERO Corps) graduation ceremony Dec. 8.

A judge sentenced Paul John McNicol, 30, of LeClaire, Iowa to 216 months in prison for receiving child pornography on Nov. 30 following a Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, probe.

Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, Kansas City Joshua Armstrong and Acting United States Attorney Steven Russell announced that Dallas Faamausili, 36, of Renton, Washington, was sentenced to more than five years in prison Thursday in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska.

A South Texas stash house operator was sentenced to nearly three years in federal prison Dec. 8 for his role in smuggling unlawfully present noncitizens in the back of a fruit truck following an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations Corpus Christi and U.S. Border Patrol.

Three pastors from Jesus Survives Ministries, a now-defunct Houston-area church, have pleaded guilty for their roles in a conspiracy to commit COVID-19 relief and car loan fraud following an investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations Houston, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the Small Business Administration and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Inspector General.

A federal grand jury in Wichita returned an indictment charging a Kansas man with one count of sexual exploitation of a child/production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography following a Homeland Security Investigations probe.

Deportation officers with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Newark field office apprehended three unlawfully present noncitizens convicted of sex offenses during a nationwide enforcement action from Oct. 22 through Nov. 4. ERO’s law enforcement action resulted in a total of 138 arrests nationally, including some people who were previously ordered removed from the U.S. but failed to depart.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) field offices in Dallas and Tampa were recognized during the 2022 Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Director’s Law Enforcement Awards Ceremony, Dec. 1. FinCEN, a bureau of the U.S. Department of Treasury, safeguards the financial system from illicit use, combats money laundering and related crimes including terrorism, and promotes national security through the strategic use of financial authorities and the collection, analysis, and dissemination of financial intelligence.

The Department of Justice has announced the unsealing of an 11-count indictment charging 12 individuals in a long-running, multifaceted conspiracy to monopolize the transmigrante forwarding industry in the Los Indios border region near Harlingen and Brownsville following an investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).