News and reports from the Department of Homeland Security.

Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) El Paso deportation officers removed a repeat immigration offender on Feb. 1 who is wanted in his home country for fraud.

The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) announced the seizure of approximately 180,000 counterfeit sports-related items, worth an estimated $22.7 million during a joint press conference with the National Football League (NFL).

Fugitive operations officers with Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston arrested Diogo De-Sales Gomes, a 34-year-old unlawfully present Brazilian citizen convicted and sentenced to prison in Brazil for drug trafficking, in Somerville on Feb. 3.

Deportation officers from Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Atlanta arrested an Ecuadorian fugitive listed as one of the country’s 100 most wanted criminals.

A Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Antonio investigation resulted in six people arrested on charges of smuggling, resulting in the death of eight.

Deportation officers from Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Washington removed Gerson Geovanni Soto-Juarez, 26, a Salvadoran national wanted by Salvadoran authorities for aggravated homicide and illicit associations.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Phoenix is implementing a year-long effort to provide essential public safety measures in and around the area for Super Bowl LVII. As a qualifying National Special Security Event, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas designated HSI Special Agent in Charge Scott Brown as the lead federal coordinator.

Special agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Charleston teamed up with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia to conduct a day-long human trafficking training workshop Jan. 31 at the University of Charleston.

Congressmen Mike Gallagher (R-WI), chairman of the House Select Committee on China, and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), also a member of the committee, said in a joint statement that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) balloon flying over the U.S. represents a serious threat that must not be ignored. The Defense Department confirmed on Thursday that it was monitoring the surveillance balloon, but would not shoot it down, and said this balloon is not the first to have been spotted in U.S. airspace. Some have expressed concern that the balloon could be spying on sensitive intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) sites in Montana.

A Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Norfolk investigation led to a guilty plea from a Midlothian, Virginia man Jan. 31 for conspiring to defraud and commit offenses against the United States, including human trafficking of individuals from Central America; benefiting from forced labor; money laundering; and harboring undocumented non-citizens.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC), the FBI’s International Human Rights Unit (IHRU) and the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP) joined national and international law enforcement partners and non-governmental organizations today in recognizing the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Officers with Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) San Antonio, with assistance from ERO Honduras and the Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement task force, removed an unlawfully present foreign fugitive wanted in Honduras for homicide on Jan. 27.

A judge sentenced Robert Ficzner, 27, of Fishers, Indiana to 13 years in federal prison for distributing child sexual abuse material following a joint investigation between Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and other agencies.

Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) New York City removed Victor Hugo Chimbo-Ilbay, a citizen of Ecuador with a final order of removal, to Ecuador on Feb. 2.

Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Tallahassee’s Criminal Alien Program team officers arrested a citizen of the Dominican Republic in Tallahassee after he served a five-year sentence for lewd and lascivious battery in Osceola County.