Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City returned multiple indictments today against four illegal aliens from Mexico and one U.S. citizen for alleged drug trafficking in four separate cases after agents seized approximately 23,759.17 grams of narcotics (approximately 52.38 pounds) total during a two-day period last month.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Tampa, Florida – Vivina Barnwell (62, Dade City) has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge James S. Moody, Jr. to two years in federal prison for aggravated identity theft and access device fraud. Barnwell pleaded guilty on May 16, 2025. The court also ordered Barnwell to pay more than $96,000 in restitution to the Social Security Administration. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced the conviction at trial today of BRIAN HERNANDEZ, a/k/a “Malaki,” for his role in an assault carried out at the Metropolitan Detention Center (“MDC”) in Brooklyn, New York on December 3, 2023.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – On April 7, 2026, DAVID LOUIS IV (“LOUIS”), age 23, a resident of New Orleans, was sentenced for being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(8). United States District Judge Darrell J. Papillion sentenced LOUIS to 33 months imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release after imprisonment. The Court’s sentence will run consecutively to a yet to be determined sentence imposed in a pending state prosecution for possessing contraband in jail. The Court’s sentence will also run concurrently with sentences yet to be imposed for probation violations in two separate state court matters, announced U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Tampa, FL – Skyler Palmer (31, Tampa) has been charged by indictment with one count of possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute, one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and one count of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. If convicted of all charges, Palmer faces a minimum sentence of 17 years, up to life, in federal prison.
Source: United States Navy
Next stop — Earth.
Following a historic lunar flyby at a record-setting distance, the Artemis II crew is now on its return journey, with splashdown expected Friday in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 50-60 miles off the coast of San Diego. Awaiting their arrival will be USS John P. Murtha (LPD-26), positioned to recover the astronauts and capsule.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A Mexican national pleaded guilty yesterday to participating in a two-year, multimillion-dollar trade-based money laundering conspiracy that moved drug trafficking proceeds through Texas to Mexico.
According to court documents, Gabriel Arturo Castillo, 52, of Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, participated in a sophisticated, international money laundering conspiracy to transfer proceeds from the sale of illegal drugs in the United States to cartels in Mexico without physically transporting money across the U.S.-Mexico border. The conspirators concealed those funds through the movement of goods between the two countries.
As part of the black-market peso exchange scheme, the criminal conspiracy received large quantities of United States dollar drug proceeds in various cities in the United States. The proceeds then either were deposited into various bank accounts or transported to Laredo, Texas. From there, the drug proceeds were sold to Mexican business owners in Mexico who used the U.S. currency to purchase products from stores in the United States, including perfume sellers. Once the businesses received payment, the merchandise purchased by the Mexican business operators was transported from Laredo to Mexico. Finally, Mexican business operators paid for the drug proceeds by transferring pesos in Mexico to the drug trafficking organizations. By doing so, the conspirators sought to conceal the source of the drug proceeds and to allow the Mexico-based drug dealers to receive their profits in their native currency, pesos.
“For years, Gabriel Arturo Castillo agreed to launder millions of dollars in drug proceeds through an intricate trade-based money laundering system,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Cartels are motivated by profit, and these financial facilitators promote their deadly drug trafficking and endanger lives, legitimate business, and trade. The devastating effects of this transnational crime are vast and wide ranging. This conviction sends a clear message that the Criminal Division will pursue narcotraffickers as well as those who enable their crimes.”
“Castillo and his co-conspirators all played a critical role in laundering millions of dollars in drug proceeds through an intricate trade-based money laundering scheme,” said Acting U.S. Attorney John G.E. Marck for the Southern District of Texas. “This plea is yet another step we are taking to dismantle the financial networks that fuel violence and narcotics trafficking along our southern border. We will continue to follow the money trail until all participants in this organization are held accountable.”
“Gabriel Castillo played a key role for years in hiding drug trafficking proceeds using complex money laundering schemes,” said Special Agent in Charge Miguel Madrigal of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) San Antonio Division. “Castillo helped facilitate the concealment of drug profits through elaborate laundering operations. But once DEA agents in Laredo started their investigation, they swiftly identified the cartel’s activities, leading to justice and ending the criminal schemes that empower their operations.”
“The specific type of scheme they used is called a black-market peso exchange, versions of which existed for decades and can be as complex as the concept is old,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Rodrick Benton of the IRS Criminal Investigation’s Houston Field Office. “We were able to follow the money to unravel how merchandise was purchased from U.S. businesses near the border and then sold in Mexico for a predetermined price. You can’t hide your ill-gotten gains from a law enforcement agency dedicated to following the money.”
Castillo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 7 and faces a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The DEA and IRS-CI are investigating the case.
Trial Attorneys Keith Liddle and Stephanie Williamson of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section (MNF) and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lance Watt and Amanda Gould for the Southern District of Texas are prosecuting the case.
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with law enforcement partners in Mexico to secure the arrest and August 2025 extradition of Castillo.
MNF’s mission is to take the profit out of crime, eliminate drug cartels, and protect the U.S. financial system. MNF pursues criminal prosecutions and criminal and civil asset recovery actions involving: financial facilitators who launder profits for criminals; financial institutions and their officers and employees whose actions threaten the U.S. financial system and financial institutions; international money launderers who support transnational organized crime; and the top command and control of international drug trafficking organizations.
MNF’s Money Laundering and Forfeiture Unit investigates and prosecutes sophisticated money laundering schemes involving financial facilitators, gatekeepers, and other individuals and entities laundering criminal proceeds, and litigates complex civil forfeiture cases to recover assets on behalf of victims.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
MARIO RAMIRO ARAGON-RUANO, also known as Mario Ramiro Aragon and Jose Juana-Zapata, 43, a citizen of Guatemala, waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver in Hartford to unlawful reentry of a removed alien.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A San Fernando Valley woman was sentenced today to 180 months in federal prison for her long-running drug dealing activities, including selling ketamine that contributed to at least two deaths, including the overdose death of actor Matthew Perry in October 2023.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
DENVER – The United States Attorney for the District of Colorado announces that Ikponmwosa Erhinmwinrose, 39, of Atlanta, Georgia, and Nyerhovwo Presley Agbure, 34, of Atlanta, Georgia, each sentenced in connection to a fraud ring that stole millions in government funds and victimized thousands of people nationwide. Erhinmwinrose will spend 17 years in federal prison after a federal jury in Denver convicted him on six counts of wire fraud, three counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of wire fraud conspiracy, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Agbure will spend 57 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Two other codefendants await sentencing.