Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Baltimore, Maryland – An Ecuadorian alien received a federal-prison term, today, for illegally re-entering the United States after her prior removal. U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Vanessa Yalixa Munoz-Baque, 31, to six months in federal prison in connection with the re-entry charges after she was previously removed from the U.S. in August 2023.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
SHAWN STEPHENS, 35, of West Haven, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford to 97 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release for his participation in the large-scale manufacture and trafficking of counterfeit pills containing synthetic opioids and other substances.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A Mexican man extradited from Mexico pleaded guilty today for conspiring to smuggle thousands of aliens from multiple countries into the United States for financial gain.
According to court documents, beginning in November 2020 and continuing through September 2023, Efrain Zuniga-Garcia, 38, of Mexico, and others were part of a vast international alien smuggling organization (ASO) that illegally brought thousands of aliens from Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, and Ecuador into the United States across the border with Mexico. The ASO operated stash houses in Monterrey, Mexico and Piedras Negras, Mexico. A Pakistani smuggler based in Brazil originally contracted with aliens to enter the smuggling venture. In turn, this Brazilian-based smuggler worked with a San Antonio, Texas, based smuggler and an illegal alien from Honduras, Enil Edil Mejia-Zuniga, to facilitate travel of the aliens from South America to the United States. Mejia-Zuniga directed operations, as well as paid armed foot guides (“coyotes”), load drivers, and stash house operators, including Zuniga-Garcia. According to court documents, Mejia-Zuniga admitted that the ASO smuggled between 2,500 to 3,000 aliens into the United States in just two years. Mejia-Zuniga stated the organization charged between $6,500 to $12,000 per alien, totaling approximately $16 to $30 million in financial gain. Mejia-Zuniga was sentenced to 10 years in prison in July 2025. Co-defendant Monica Hernandez-Palma, 34, of Mexico, was sentenced to 41 months in prison in May 2026.
Zuniga-Garcia operated the stash house in Monterrey and coordinated with other members of the ASO to transport aliens to the stash house and then illegally into the United States. Zuniga-Garcia worked with others to house aliens for a period, after which the aliens would be turned over to the “coyotes,” who led them across the U.S.-Mexico border by crossing the Rio Grande River.
Zuniga-Garcia pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bring aliens to the United States, bringing an alien to the United States for financial gain, and aiding and abetting. A sentencing date has not yet been set. Zuniga Garcia faces a mandatory minimum penalty of three years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas; and Acting Special Agent in Charge John A. Pasciucco of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Antonio made the announcement.
HSI Del Rio led U.S. investigative efforts, working in concert with the HSI Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, D.C., U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) National Targeting Center International Interdiction Task Force and U.S. Border Patrol (BP). The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with law enforcement partners in Mexico to secure the arrest and extradition of Zuniga-Garcia.
Trial Attorney Bethany Allen of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Duarte II for the Western District of Texas are prosecuting the case.
The investigation and indictment were supported and prosecuted by Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), the Department’s lead effort in combating high-impact human smuggling and trafficking committed by cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs). A highly successful partnership between the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), JTFA investigates and prosecutes human smuggling and trafficking and related immigration crimes that impact public safety and border security. JTFA’s mission is to target the leaders and organizers of Cartels and TCOs involved in human smuggling and trafficking throughout the Americas. The Attorney General has elevated and expanded JTFA to target the most prolific and dangerous human smuggling and trafficking groups operating not only in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, but also in Canada, the Caribbean and the maritime border, and elsewhere. Led by the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and supported by the Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section, the Office of International Affairs, and the Office of Enforcement Operations, among others, JTFA has dedicated Assistant U.S. Attorney-detailees from the Southern District of California; District of Arizona; District of New Mexico; Western and Southern Districts of Texas; Southern District of Florida; Northern District of New York; and District of Vermont. JTFA also partners with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices throughout the country and supports high-priority cases in any district. All JTFA cases rely on substantial law enforcement resources from DHS, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol and Office of Field Operations as well as FBI and other law enforcement agencies. To date, JTFA’s work has resulted in more than 464 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organizers, and significant facilitators of alien smuggling and/or trafficking; more than 414 U.S. convictions; and more than 360 significant jail sentences imposed, and forfeitures of substantial assets.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
LAS VEGAS – An illegal alien from Mexico was sentenced Friday by United States District Judge Richard F. Boulware to 36 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release for illegally reentering the United States after having been removed from the country on three prior occasions. The government recommended 36 months’ imprisonment.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced that LE VAN HUNG, a/k/a “Hung Van Le,” a/k/a “Van Hung Le,” pled guilty to participating in a conspiracy to commit identity theft based on his role in a transnational scheme to launder at least approximately $67 million of illegally obtained funds to benefit, among others, a multinational media company headquartered in New York, New York (the “Media Company”).
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
CLARKSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA – A Clarksburg man will spend the next 15 years in federal prison for leading a drug operation that sold fentanyl and methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney Matthew L. Harvey announced today.Thomas Charles Goodwine, 32, was sentenced to 188 months.
Source: United States Department of Justice
Ocala, Florida – Cain Matias Godinez (42, Mexico) has been sentenced by United States District Judge Thomas P. Barber to 20 years in federal prison, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release, for attempted enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity. A federal jury found Matias Godinez guilty on March 5, 2026. United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
Source: United States Department of Justice
Today, the Department of Justice’s Civil Division filed complaints against Massachusetts and Rhode Island to challenge state laws that provide in-state tuition and financial assistance to illegal aliens. These laws unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens who are not afforded the same reduced tuition rates or scholarships, create incentives for illegal immigration, and reward illegal aliens with benefits that U.S. citizens are not eligible for, all in direct conflict with federal law.
“The Department of Justice is committed to fulfilling President Trump’s promise that illegal aliens will not receive taxpayer benefits or preferential treatment over America’s own citizens,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. “As our Nation marks 250 years of freedom, we will continue to challenge state laws that place aliens over citizens in clear defiance of Congress’s commands.
“This is a simple matter of federal law: colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country.”
In the complaints, the federal government seeks to enjoin enforcement of Massachusetts and Rhode Island laws that require colleges and universities to provide in-state tuition rates for all aliens who maintain in-state residency, regardless of whether those aliens are lawfully present in the United States. Additionally, the complaint seeks to enjoin Massachusetts and Rhode Island from enforcing state laws that afford financial assistance and scholarships to illegal aliens.
Today’s filings mark three lawsuits in the past week challenging in-state tuition for illegal aliens, bringing the Department’s total in this series of actions to 12.
The Department’s efforts have already delivered several victories for the American people, as four similar lawsuits in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Nebraska have resulted in favorable orders permanently enjoining and declaring unconstitutional analogous laws that gave reduced tuition to illegal aliens. Lawsuits against other states that similarly place illegal aliens ahead of U.S. citizens are pending across the country in Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, and Kansas.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
BENJAMIN DOZIER, also known as “Ace” and “Blanco, 44, of Bridgeport, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford to 36 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release for trafficking narcotics in southwestern Connecticut.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Malik Terrell, 24, of the District of Columbia, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 87 months in prison in connection with a 2023 kidnapping in which two people were killed, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.