Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – KEVIN SINCENO (“SINCENO”), age 43, of Slidell, Louisiana, was indicted on October 15, 2026 for stealing a United States Treasury check, and then stealing a victim’s identity to deposit, and withdraw, the stolen funds, announced U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – BYRON BUTLER (“BUTLER”), age 33, a resident of New Orleans, pled guilty on October 15, 2026, to conspiracy to distribute, and possess with intent to distribute, marijuana, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(D), and 846, and possession of a machinegun, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 922(o), announced U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
NEW ORLEANS – On October 13, 2026, JOHN M. SPIVEY (“SPIVEY”), age 55, of New Orleans, was ordered to pay over $7 million in restitution for his role in a conspiracy to commit health care fraud, announced U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jamie McDonald, and Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), James C. Barnacle, Jr., announced today the unsealing of an Indictment charging JESHON BINGHAM, a/k/a “Jay,” a/k/a “Glizzy,” RUPERTT SHERRIR, a/k/a “Rupert Sherrier,” a/k/a “RJ,” a/k/a “Mr. Bag Different,” FLOYD FORREST, a/k/a “Wild Apache Jr.,” REHEEM ANDERSON, a/k/a “Dirt,” MIKHAIL DAVIS, a/k/a “Mickey,” JUZAN SPENCE, a/k/a “Juju,” a/k/a “Roddy,” CHAVAUGHN BOOTHE, a/k/a “Quenga,” and MICHELLE HYLTON, a/k/a “Michii,” with bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico, Héctor Ramírez-Carbó, Acting United States Attorney, in conjunction with our partner agencies in the Homeland Security Task Force (“HSTF”) announce the following prosecutorial results for the week of October 12 through October 16, 2026. The HSTF is a permanent, interagency law enforcement task force created by executive order to combat transnational criminal organizations—including cartels, trafficking networks, and foreign terrorist organizations.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Harmeet K. Dhillon., Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, announced today an agreement with the Village of Atlantic Beach, New York to resolve allegations that it violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) by enacting and enforcing zoning provisions that treat religious land uses worse than comparable secular uses.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Tampa, FL – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, in coordination with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, announced its comprehensive strategy today to oversee federal voting protections and investigate potential election fraud as early voting begins in Florida for the 2026 midterm elections.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Jackson, TN – Cruz Lisarraga Flores, 49, formerly of Los Angeles, California, has been sentenced to over 16 years in federal prison for attempting to distribute over 50 grams of actual methamphetamine in the Western District of Tennessee. D. Michael Dunavant, United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, announced the sentence today. In the spring of 2023, agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, while acting under the authority of a Title III wiretap order, intercepted telephone calls between Flores and two West Tennessee residents concerning Flores’s shipment of…
Source: United States Department of Justice
Today the Justice Department announced an agreement with the Village of Atlantic Beach, New York, to resolve allegations that it violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) by enacting and enforcing zoning provisions that treat religious land uses worse than comparable secular uses.
“Zoning ordinances that single out religious uses for discretionary zoning permits while allowing secular gathering places as of right violate RLUIPA,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department is committed to ensuring that religious gathering places like synagogues, churches, and mosques across America are treated the same as secular places of assembly.”
“The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act prohibits local governments from imposing land use regulations that place unfair or discriminatory barriers on religious groups as compared to secular assemblies,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. for the Eastern District of New York. “The Justice Department and my Office are committed to protecting the right of religious institutions to receive equal treatment under the law.”
RLUIPA is a federal law that protects people and religious institutions from unduly burdensome, unequal, or discriminatory land use regulations. Among its protections is a requirement that zoning ordinances and zoning authorities cannot treat religious assemblies and institutions on less than equal terms with nonreligious assemblies or institutions.
The settlement agreement resolves claims that a Village zoning ordinance, which required that religious or educational places of assembly, but not nonreligious places of assembly, obtain a special exception permit from the Village’s Board of Appeals, violated RLUIPA’s equal terms provision. The settlement agreement follows resolution of a private lawsuit brought by an Orthodox Jewish organization, Chabad of the Beaches, which asserted that the Village’s denial of its application to use a vacant commercial property for a religious facility violated RLUIPA.
Under the settlement agreement, the Village agreed to revise its zoning ordinance to remove the special exception requirement for places of worship and instead permit religious uses as of right in the Village’s Residential (A) district. The settlement agreement also requires, among other relief, that the Village train its officials and employees on RLUIPA’s requirements and establish a procedure for receiving and resolving RLUIPA complaints.
More information about RLUIPA and the Department’s efforts to enforce it can be found on the Place to Worship Initiative’s webpage. Individuals who believe they have been subjected to discrimination in land use or zoning decisions may contact the Civil Rights Division Housing and Civil Enforcement Section at (800) 896-7743, or through the online RLUIPA complaint portal. Anyone in the Eastern District of New York may also report civil rights violations to the Civil Rights Section at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York’s Civil Division by calling (718) 254-7000 or emailing usanye-civilrights@usdoj.gov.
Source: United States Department of Justice
Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Harmeet K. Dhillon., Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, announced today an agreement with the Village of Atlantic Beach, New York to resolve allegations that it violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) by enacting and enforcing zoning provisions that treat religious land uses worse than comparable secular uses.