The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Alberto Hernandez-Torres, formerly of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, was sentenced today by United States District Court Judge Malachy Mannion in Scranton to 27 months’ imprisonment after having pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit identification fraud and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling for financial gain. Hernandez-Torres was also ordered to forfeit $40,000 to the United States. At the conclusion of the proceeding, Judge Mannion entered an order of removal requiring that Hernandez-Torres be removed from the United States to his home country of Mexico.
According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, the multi-jurisdictional, transnational investigation in this case was conducted by investigators of the Department of Homeland Security-Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Department of State. The investigation included 18 court-authorized wiretaps and a nationwide coordinated case take-down that included 260 search warrants, including a search warrant in Hazleton. Fifty-three persons were charged in the case of whom forty-nine were arrested. All 49 persons arrested so far have entered guilty pleas.
The investigation and prosecutions in this case were coordinated by James Yoon, Hope Olds, Courtney Schaefer and Christina Giffin, attorneys in the United States Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. The case was handled locally in the Middle District of Pennsylvania by Assistant U.S. Attorney William Houser.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
