Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Defendant Violently Attacked Owner of Demolition Business in Midtown Manhattan Over Purported Debt

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), New England, announced that MELISSA CRUZ, 37, of New Britain, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver in Hartford to an offense stemming from her participation in a conspiracy to import and sell counterfeit goods.

According to court documents and statements made in court, between 2021 and 2024, Cruz conspired with others to sell counterfeit clothing, luxury and designer handbags and purses, and jewelry bearing counterfeit trademarks to customers across the U.S., some of which she imported from outside the U.S.  She used Facebook to conduct live shows during which she showcased, advertised, and sold the counterfeit goods.  In total, Cruz and her co-conspirators made more than $4 million in gross sales for the counterfeit merchandise through various electronic peer-to-peer payment services including CashApp, Paypal, and Venmo.

Between March 2022 and March 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized multiple international parcels containing dozens of counterfeit handbags from Thailand, China, and Hong Kong that were addressed to Cruz’s residence in New Britain.  On December 19, 2024, law enforcement conducted a court-authorized search of the residence and seized nearly 2,000 units of counterfeit goods.

Cruz each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to willfully infringe a copyright, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of one year.  She is released on her own recognizance pending sentencing, which is scheduled for March 12.

This investigation is being conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with the assistance of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel P. Gordon.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

ST. LOUIS – A man from Waukegan, Illinois on Monday admitted traveling to Missouri and other states to open fraudulent bank accounts and deposit checks that had been stolen from the U.S. Mail.

Terry Carter-Kilgore, 28, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of bank fraud. Between December 2022 and August 2024, Carter-Kilgore bought or otherwise obtained checks that had been stolen from the mail. He then used fraudulent driver’s licenses with his picture and the personal information of others and fake business documents to open unauthorized bank accounts in Missouri and other states in names matching those on the stolen checks. Carter-Kilgore would then deposit or try to deposit the stolen checks into the unauthorized bank accounts. He deposited or attempted to deposit at least six stolen checks totaling $214,935.

On Dec. 21, 2022, Carter-Kilgore deposited a stolen $36,373 check into an account at a bank in Florissant, Missouri, using a fake driver’s license. Over a year later, on Aug. 20, 2024, Carter-Kilgore opened an unauthorized bank account in Lee’s Summit, Missouri and tried to deposit a stolen check using a fraudulent Georgia driver’s license. Suspicious bank personnel called the Lee’s Summit Police Department. When police arrived, Carter-Kilgore ran away but was found hiding under the deck of a nearby home. He admitted to police that he attempted to deposit a stolen check using a false driver’s license. He also said he’d bought both check and ID in Chicago.

Carter-Kilgore is scheduled to be sentenced on March 9, 2026. Bank fraud carries a potential prison sentence of up to 30 years, a fine of up to $1,000,000, or both prison and a fine.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Lee’s Summit Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow is prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A resident of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to 3 years’ probation plus 7 days intermittent confinement on his conviction of theft of government property, First Assistant United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced today.

United States District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan imposed the sentence on Nicholas T. Grimes, 31.

According to information presented to the Court, following the death of a Title II Social Security benefits recipient, Grimes began stealing that person’s Social Security retirement benefits, beginning as early as 2014. Grimes stole benefits totaling approximately $216,779 by negotiating the benefits from the deceased’s account through ATM transactions. Grimes has also been ordered to pay the full restitution of $216,779 to the Social Security Administration.

Assistant United States Attorney Gregory C. Melucci prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

First Assistant United States Attorney Rivetti commended the Social Security Administration – Office of the Inspector General and the United States Postal Inspection Service for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Grimes.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

WILLIAMSPORT – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Katrina Maclean, age 46, of Bradford, Massachusetts, pled guilty today before Chief United States District Judge Matthew W. Brann to interstate transport of stolen human remains. 

According to United States Attorney Brian D. Miller, Maclean admitted that, from 2018 through 2022, she bought human remains that she knew to have been stolen from Harvard Medical School and transported them from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania.  Maclean also sold stolen human remains to others, including Jeremy Pauley, who previously entered a guilty plea to a felony information.

From 2018 through 2022, Cedric Lodge, who managed the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School, located in Boston, Massachusetts, stole organs and other parts of cadavers donated for medical research and education before their scheduled cremations.  Lodge at times transported stolen remains from Boston to his residence in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where he and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold the remains to Katrina Maclean, and others, making arrangements via cellular telephone and social media websites.  On some occasions, Maclean transported stolen remains to Pennsylvania.

Several other defendants have previously entered guilty pleas, including Jeremy Pauley, Cedric Lodge, Denise Lodge, Joshua Taylor, Andrew Ensanian, Matthew Lampi, and Angelo Pereyra.  Lampi was sentenced to 15 months in prison and Pereyra was sentenced to 18 months.  Cedric Lodge, Denise Lodge, Joshua Taylor and Andrew Ensanian are still awaiting sentencing. Additionally, Candace Chapman-Scott, who stole remains from an Arkansas crematorium where she was employed and sold them to Pauley in Pennsylvania, entered a plea of guilty in Arkansas federal court and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the East Pennsboro Township Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alisan V. Martin is prosecuting the case.           

The maximum penalty under federal law for this offense is 10 years of imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine. A sentence following a finding of guilt is imposed by the Judge after consideration of the applicable federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

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Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Baltimore, Maryland – Ryan Christopher Hall, 50, of Woodstock, Maryland, pled guilty today, to sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child sexual abuse material charges in federal court. Hall is a former domestic violence detective who served 27 years with the Harford County Sheriff’s Office.

Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, announced the guilty plea with Acting Special Agent in Charge Evan Campanella, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) – Baltimore; Carroll County State’s Attorney Haven N. Shoemaker, Jr.; Sheriff James T. DeWees, Carroll County Sheriff’s Office; and Sheriff Jeff Gahler, Harford County Sheriff’s Office.

According to court documents, from May 2017 thru October 2024, Hall sexually abused two minor children. Authorities discovered that Hall installed cameras to produce child sexual abuse material and possessed child sexual abuse material. Additionally, Hall is facing related charges for child sexual abuse in the Carroll County Circuit Court.

Hall faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years, and a maximum sentence of 30 years, in federal prison for each count of sexual exploitation of a child. He also is subject to lifetime supervised release and lifetime registration as a sex offender.  U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson scheduled sentencing for Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at 2 p.m.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, launched in May 2006, by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.justice.gov/psc.  Learn more about Internet safety education by clicking on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.

Know2Protect is a Department of Homeland Security national public awareness campaign to educate and empower children, teens, parents, trusted adults and policymakers to prevent and combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse; explain how to report online enticement and victimization; and offer resources for victims and survivors and their supporters.  Learn more about Know2Protect at www.dhs.gov/know2protect.

U.S. Attorney Hayes commended HSI, the Carroll County State’s Attorney’s Office Special Victims Unit, and Carroll County Sheriff’s Office Crimes Against Children Unit for their combined effort and work in the investigation.  Ms. Hayes also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Elizabeth McGuinn who is prosecuting the federal case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

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Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

ANNISTON, Ala. – A Colbert County man was sentenced on a felony charge for violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, announced U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona.

U.S. District Judge Corey L. Maze sentenced Michael Shane McDaniel, 57, of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to 24 months in prison followed by eight years of supervised release.  In June, McDaniel pleaded guilty to failing to register or update his registration as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

According to court documents, McDaniel was convicted in 2011 of child molestation in Marion Superior Court in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is required to register as a sex offender under SORNA. Following his conviction, McDaniel registered as a sex offender in Indiana where he resided. In June 2024, and continuing through December 2024, McDaniel moved from Indiana to Alabama and failed to register as a sex offender in Alabama.

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 implemented SORNA and established a comprehensive national system for the registration of sex offenders to protect the public. The Act requires anyone convicted of specified crimes to register with the national sex offender registry.

The U.S. Marshals Service for the Northern District of Alabama investigated the case along with the U.S. Marshals Service for the Southern District of Indiana, the U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, the Hendricks County Sheriff’s Office (Indiana), and the Colbert County Sheriff’s Office (Alabama). Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Leann White prosecuted the case.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Guatemalan national unlawfully residing in the United States and previously convicted of sexual battery pleaded guilty today in federal court in Cleveland to encouraging and inducing an unaccompanied alien child (UAC) to illegally enter the United States and to submitting a sponsorship application with false statements to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to gain custody of the UAC.

“This defendant directed a 14-year-old child to commit criminal conduct and then obtained custody of the child by defrauding a government program intended to help vulnerable children,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Through Joint Task Force Alpha, the Criminal Division is fully committed to prosecuting those who take advantage of children and lie to undermine the integrity of government programs. We will strive to end the exploitation of these children and stop the manipulation of government programs by fraudsters, smugglers, and others engaged in serious criminal conduct.”

“Mr. Tiul Xi engaged in layers of deception. Committing one federal crime after another, he showed no regard or respect for this girl’s human dignity,” said U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio. “We greatly appreciate the dedication of the investigative teams with Homeland Security Investigations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Cleveland FBI, to protect minors from being victimized by the likes of these ruthless individuals.”

According to court documents, 26-year-old Juan Tiul Xi helped a 14-year-old female Guatemalan UAC enter the United States illegally with the permission of her family. Tiul Xi helped the UAC and her family find someone from whom the family could borrow money to pay a “coyote” to transport the UAC to the United States. Tiul Xi instructed the UAC to use the name and birth certificate of Tiul Xi’s minor sister to enter the United States so that Tiul Xi could falsely state in his UAC sponsorship application that he was the UAC’s brother. Tiul Xi then made these false representations in an application that he signed under the penalty of perjury. ORR relied on Tiul Xi’s misrepresentations, approved his application to sponsor the UAC, and released the UAC to Tiul Xi’s care in September 2023.

Tiul Xi was indicted on April 17, 2025, and pleaded guilty today to all counts: one count of encouraging or inducing illegal entry for the purpose of financial gain; one count of making a false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement; and one count of aggravated identity theft. Tiul Xi faces a maximum penalty of ten years in prison on the illegal-entry count, up to five years in prison on the false-statement count, and a mandatory consecutive two-year sentence on the aggravated-identity-theft count. Tiul Xi’s sentencing is scheduled to take place on March 19, 2026. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The investigation and indictment were coordinated 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 and Asset Recovery Section, the Office of International Affairs, and the Office of Enforcement Operations, among others, JTFA has dedicated Assistant United States 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 USAOs throughout the country and supports high-priority cases in any district. All JTFA cases rely on substantial law enforcement resources from DHS, including ICE/ HSI and CBP/BP and OFO, as well as FBI and other law enforcement agencies. To date, JTFA’s work has resulted in more than 425 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organizers, and significant facilitators of alien smuggling and/or trafficking; more than 375 U.S. convictions; more than 325 significant jail sentences imposed, and forfeitures of substantial assets.

ICE HSI and FBI Cleveland field offices jointly led the investigation with assistance from HSI’s Attaché team in Guatemala. Additionally, HSI’s Center for Countering Human Trafficking in Washington, D.C., and ORR have provided valuable assistance.

Acting Deputy Chief Christian Levesque of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, Joint Task Force Alpha detailee/Trial Attorney Spencer M. Perry of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney/Senior Litigation Counsel Carol Skutnik and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael L. Collyer for the Northern District of Ohio are prosecuting the case, with assistance from HRSP Analyst/Latin America Specialist Joanna Crandall.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

BOSTON – A Dorchester man has pleaded guilty to unlawfully possessing a firearm and ammunition as a convicted felon.

Rickey Simmons, 46, pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. U.S. District Court Senior Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV scheduled sentencing for March 6, 2026. Simmons was charged in January 2025 and later indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2025.

On Jan. 28, 2025, Simmons possessed a Tisas, Model Zig M1911, .45 caliber firearm, eight rounds of .45 caliber ammunition and nine rounds of .22 caliber ammunition, after having been convicted of a felony.

The charge of being a felon in possession provides for a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Thomas Greco, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives made the announcement today. Assistant United States Attorneys Mark Grady and Allegra Flamm of the Major Crimes Unit are prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A native of Mexico has been sentenced for illegally re-entering the U.S. after deportation, announced U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona.

United States District Judge Corey L. Maze sentenced Eberardo Yovany Peralta-Cazales, 34, a citizen of Mexico, to 18 months in prison. Peralta-Cazales pleaded guilty to illegal re-entry after deportation.

According to the court documents, Peralta-Cazales was originally removed from the United States on November 11, 2015.  On September 21, 2023, Peralta-Cazales was found in the United States and removed again on September 29, 2023. Less than a year after his second removal, Peralta-Cazales was arrested in Dekalb County, Alabama, for five counts of Rape Second Degree and four counts of Sodomy Second Degree, all involving a 12-year-old girl. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deportation Removal Office (ICE/ERO) was notified of the arrest and Peralta-Cazales was later transferred into federal custody.   

Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case along with the Dekalb County Sherrif’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara M. Judah prosecuted the case.

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 (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.