Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that Edwin Miguel Batista, 46, of Niagara Falls, NY, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder, Jr. to narcotics conspiracy, which carries a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum of 40 years.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Attorney for the United States, Sean S. Buckley, announced today that JARED SOLOMON, a former vice president of leasing at the commercial real estate company Vornado Realty Trust, was convicted of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and bank fraud, in connection with a years-long scheme to defraud his former employer, forge signatures, and lie to banks.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Eight illegal aliens and members of the violent transnational criminal organization Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, have been sentenced for participating in a racketeering conspiracy that included witness tampering and multiple murders of individuals as young as 14.
“These defendants, acting on behalf of a transnational criminal gang, carried out brutal murders, killing victims with machetes, baseball bats, and their bare hands, and then glorifying their violent acts by sending photos of their carnage to MS-13 leaders in El Salvador,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The Department commends the brave law enforcement officers and those who came forward to help law enforcement to resolve these cases. The lengthy sentences imposed send an unmistakable message that MS-13 and its accompanying violence are not welcome in the United States. The Criminal Division will relentlessly pursue MS-13 and hold those accountable who bring MS-13 violence to American communities.”
“Today’s sentences send a clear message – those who carry out violence for transnational criminal organizations will be held accountable, no matter where the orders come from,” said Acting U.S. Attorney John G.E. Marck for the Southern District of Texas. “These defendants used brutality to advance within their criminal enterprise, and now they face the consequences. The Southern District of Texas will diligently continue working to dismantle violent criminal gangs that threaten our community.”
“This case centers on when MS-13 violence was at its peak in Houston. These gang members are among the most ruthless and violent criminals we’ve seen. They made our communities their killing fields,” said Special Agent in Charge Jason Hudson of the FBI Houston Field Office. “Today’s hefty sentences should send a message to other violent terrorist organizations that the rule of law and justice will eventually catch up to you. This investigation, and today’s sentences, would not have been possible if it weren’t for our partnerships with the Houston Police Department, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, and our law enforcement partners in El Salvador.”
“All eight of these MS-13 gang members illegally entered the country – including Aguilar Ochoa who illegally entered the U.S. four times – and went on to reign terror on our local communities,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Erin Burke of Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Houston. “Working in conjunction with our partners, we were able to bring an end to the lawlessness that they’ve spread and hold them accountable for their depraved actions.”
Today, Edgardo Martinez-Rodriguez also known as Largo, 35, was sentenced to 50 years in prison and Wilman Rivas-Guido also known as Inquieto, 30, was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Six other MS-13 members have been sentenced to lengthy terms of imprisonment in connection with this case: Miguel Angel Aguilar-Ochoa also known as Darki, 40, Wilson Jose Ventura-Mejia also known as Discreto, 30, and Walter Chicas-Garcia, 28, each received 50-year sentences. Marlon Miranda Moran, 26, was ordered to serve 35 years in prison, while Luis Ernesto Carbajal-Peraza, 34, and Carlos Garcia-Gongora, 28, were ordered to serve 45 years in prison. All have been and will remain in custody.
All are El Salvadoran nationals illegally present in the United States. They previously pleaded guilty, admitting to being members of MS-13 and participating in a criminal enterprise responsible for murders, extortion, drug trafficking, robbery and obstruction of justice in and around the Houston area from 2017 through 2018. In February 2025, the U.S. State Department designated MS-13 as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. MS-13 engages in violent criminal activity across the United States, including in Texas, Virginia, Maryland, New York and California, and throughout the countries where it operates, such as El Salvador and Honduras. MS-13 routinely uses intimidation and violence, including murder and assault with deadly weapons like machetes, baseball bats, firearms, and ligature strangulation, all to maintain power, reputation and territory.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Martinez-Rodriguez and Rivas-Guido, who were sentenced today after admitting to involvement in murder ordered and approved by high-ranking MS-13 leaders in El Salvador, who at times monitored executions by phone. Members carried out the murders to increase or maintain rank within the gang and targeted individuals believed to be rival gang members, law enforcement cooperators or people working against MS-13’s interests. After the murders, members sent photos of the victims’ bodies to leadership in El Salvador as proof of the executions and in an effort to rise in rank, sometimes further mutilating or dismembering the bodies before sending the photos. Martinez-Rodriguez was a high-ranking leader in the conspiracy and initiated numerous murders ordered and approved by MS-13 leaders in El Salvador.
FBI and HSI conducted the investigation with assistance from police departments in Houston and Galveston, Texas, and Prince George’s County in Maryland; Sheriff’s offices in Harris and Liberty Counties in Texas; Texas Department of Public Safety; University of North Texas Center for Human Identification; U.S. Marshals Service and Texas Office of the Attorney General.
Trial Attorneys César S. Rivera-Giraud and Ben Tonkin of the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Keri Fuller and former Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Britni Verdeja for the Southern District of Texas prosecuted this case.
This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force nationwide initiative, which is a White House directed, interagency effort to integrate federal, state, and local partners in targeting transnational criminal organizations, and led by the prosecutorial Joint Task Force Vulcan.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Orlando, Florida – The United States has filed an eleven-count civil lawsuit in federal district court against Dr. Kerri Zavota, a veterinarian practicing in Volusia County, and her clinic, Veterinary Emergency Center of East Volusia, L.L.C., alleging violations of the Controlled Substances Act. Dr. Zavota is alleged to have failed to track and record handling and dispensing of controlled substances, including fentanyl and other dangerous drugs.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Eastern District of Texas U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs joins the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and the Executive Office for the United States Attorneys (EOUSA) in observing National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. This year’s theme is “Listen. Act. Advocate. Protect victims, serve communities.”
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Jacksonville, Florida – Abigail Payton (30, Kentucky) has been sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard to three years and six months in federal prison for aggravated identity theft and bank fraud. Payton pleaded guilty on November 13, 2025.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Today, the United States filed a complaint against Nebraska and joined with the State in filing a proposed consent decree to permanently enjoin Nebraska laws that provide in-state tuition and financial assistance for illegal aliens.
The proposed consent decree, which must still be approved by the court, would resolve the Department’s claims that Nebraska’s laws unconstitutionally discriminate against American citizens in favor of illegal aliens. Specifically, Nebraska’s challenged laws grant reduced tuition to illegal aliens over U.S. citizens, which not only violates federal law but also incentivizes illegal immigration and rewards illegal immigrants with scholarship benefits that U.S. citizens are not eligible for.
“For two decades, the Nebraska legislature gave preferential treatment to illegal aliens over American citizens,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. “We encourage all States to follow the commonsense correction of Attorney General Hilgers, ceasing any policy that rewards illegal entry into our nation with educational opportunities not available to U.S. citizens.”
“Nebraska’s unconstitutional and un-American laws should never have been passed in the first place and are prohibited by federal law,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Department of Justice has won on this exact issue in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kentucky, and we will take this fight to any states that fail to put American citizens first.”
“This proposed consent decree demonstrates the quality of partnership between Nebraska state leaders and the Department of Justice for the shared purpose of ensuring that federal tax dollars are not used to discriminate against Nebraska’s lawful citizens,” said U.S. Attorney Lesley Woods for the District of Nebraska.
“Nebraskans expect that illegal aliens won’t get the benefit of in-state tuition and financial aid, and federal law forbids it,” said Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen. “Outdated Nebraska laws to the contrary are deeply misguided and unconstitutional, and I am grateful for the combined efforts of President Trump’s Department of Justice and Attorney General Hilgers to deliver this long-overdue correction. This is the latest example of the tremendous partnership between the State of Nebraska and the Trump Administration.”
“This Nebraska law is unconstitutional as it unlawfully extended benefits to illegal immigrants which were not available to American citizens,” said Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers. “We filed the joint motion with the Department of Justice in order to ensure that this unconstitutional law was permanently enjoined.”
The motion came just hours after the Justice Department filed a complaint in the District of Nebraska, Omaha Division, against the state of Nebraska seeking to enjoin the state from enforcing laws that require colleges and universities to provide in-state tuition rates to all aliens who maintain Nebraska residency, regardless of whether those aliens are lawfully present in the United States. Additionally, the complaint seeks to enjoin Nebraska from enforcing state laws that afford financial assistance and scholarships to illegal aliens.
This is the 8th lawsuit in a series of actions the department has filed to fulfill President Trump’s commitment to ensure that illegal aliens are not obtaining taxpayer benefits or preferential treatment. These efforts have already delivered wins for the American people, as three similar lawsuits in Texas, Kentucky, and Oklahoma have resulted favorable orders permanently enjoining and declaring unconstitutional analogous laws that gave reduced tuition to illegal aliens. Lawsuits against other states that similarly put illegal aliens ahead of U.S. citizens are pending across the country in Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, and California.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, Jaquell Blackwell was sentenced to 63 months’ imprisonment for committing three armed carjackings. On December 18, 2025, another defendant, Abdoul Azika, was sentenced to 87 months’ imprisonment for his participation in a carjacking with Blackwell and two other armed carjackings. Both proceedings were held before United States District Judge Dora L. Irizarry.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Jackson, TN – Jonathan James Moore, 58, of Jackson, has been sentenced to 60 months in federal prison for possession of child pornography. D. Michael Dunavant, United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, announced the sentence today.The investigation in this case began in January 2025 when the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a report from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding the uploading of 13 files containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to a Google mail (Gmail) account. Further investigation revealed that…
Source: United States Army
WASHINGTON — Senior leaders from the 1st Cavalry Division discussed the unit’s ongoing transformation efforts, emphasizing readiness, integration, and modernization during their Army Current Operations Engagement Tour (ACOET) at the Cannon House Office Building, April 14, 2026.
The 1st Cavalry Division is actively reorganizing formations, integrating new technologies, and refining doctrine to ensure it can fight and win in large-scale combat operations. The division applies lessons from recent training and ongoing global conflicts to rapidly adapt how it fights, focusing on long-range fires, data integration, counter-unmanned systems, and sustainment.
The division is currently one of the Army’s largest divisions with 22,000 soldiers and growing toward 24,000 personnel as it restructures into a fully integrated combined arms formation. Its force includes armored brigade combat teams, a Stryker brigade, division artillery (DIVARTY), and aviation and sustainment units.
Leaders emphasized the necessity of training as a complete division, not just as separate brigades, at the ACOET to Congressional leaders.
“We brought the division to the National Training Center because one of the things that we realized is that brigades don’t fight alone,” said Maj. Gen. Thomas M. Feltey, commanding general, 1st Cavalry Division. “We all fight together as a combined arms team. That’s what makes it so special.”
Col. Jose A. Reyes, commander, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, stated that the transformation is a comprehensive effort spanning doctrine, organization, training, and equipment.
“When you think about the Army’s continuous transformation, it’s not just about spending money on cool things,” Reyes said. “We have been working closely with the Army to upgrade and update our Army’s warfighting doctrine, especially for armoured formations, so that we fight the way that we want to fight.”
Division Artillery remains central to the division’s strategy, using long-range precision fires to enable maneuver forces to advance.
Feltey explained that the division acts as a decisive enabler for the joint force, using its combat power to secure strategic ground from which its long-range precision fires can support other military branches.
The division is also working to connect its sensors, networks, and command systems to deliver real-time battlefield data to leaders at lower echelons, enabling faster and more informed decisions.
“The challenge is, how do we take all this data that all our sensors are gathering and package it up into something usable and then transfer it to the intelligence enterprise?” Reyes asked. “If I can get it there, then I can use it for targeting.”
To counter the widespread use of small, low-cost drones, the division is developing a layered defense. While leaders report that detection capabilities are improving, the ability to defeat these systems remains a challenge.
“What we’re really concerned about also is Group two and Group one threat… very hard to detect and then defeat,” said Col. Nicholas H. Dvonch, the Division Artillery commander. “In the detection space, we found the use of acoustic sensors and passive sensors to be highly effective. The defeat portion is a much harder problem to solve.”
Leaders are experimenting with kinetic solutions to destroy these threats, particularly at close range. One of the most promising systems being tested is a fully automated weapon designed to protect vehicles from an imminent drone attack.
“One example is [a system that] uses a tungsten shotgun round where there’s no human that has to be in the loop. It can automatically slew and fire right to defeat at the very last second what’s about to hit a vehicle,” said Dvonch.
Sustainment in contested environments is another critical component of the transformation. Reyes said his brigade maintained a high state of readiness during its recent National Training Center rotation despite a demanding operational tempo.
“We fought consistently with about eighty four percent readiness rate for all of our vehicles,” he said. “We did, we did dip at one point to about sixty six percent, and then we left the National Training Center with ninety percent of our equipment working, which is pretty great.”
The division is adapting its medical support for scenarios where immediate evacuation is not possible.
“We don’t think the ‘golden hour’ is going to exist much longer,” Reyes said. “So we’re training our medics for prolonged care so they could treat their wounded longer and keep them alive longer.”
While unmanned systems are being integrated across the force, leaders noted their limitations during fast-paced offensive operations.
“There’s certainly value in it and we learned the limitations of that and some of our current UAS systems is that they can’t keep up with the tempo of an armored brigade,” Reyes said. “When we’re on the offense and we want to attack, and we want to keep the enemy on their heels, it’s harder to utilize them in that way.”
Leaders stressed that these transformation efforts are urgent and ongoing, driven by observations of the modern battlefield.
“This is a now problem, right? It’s not what we’re going to do in ten years,” Feltey said. “‘We need to innovate now. The battlefield is changing faster than ever.’”
Reyes affirmed that every aspect of the transformation is focused on a single goal: ensuring the division is ready to deploy and fight at a moment’s notice.