Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
PENSACOLA, FLORIDA – Laurie Ann Chapman, 53, of Pensacola, Florida, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute more than 40 grams of fentanyl, one count of possession with intent to distribute more than 40 grams of fentanyl, and two counts of distribution of fentanyl.
Source: United States Navy
The Navy is advancing the Chief of Naval Operations’ No Sailor Lives Afloat initiative, which ensures all Sailors assigned to ships and afloat units have access to housing ashore. As of February, approximately 4,500 Sailors have transitioned from living afloat to residing ashore.
Source: United States Airforce
The AFMC Force Support Squadron Summit helps to ensure that our Airmen and Guardians remain equipped to meet the evolving needs of the Air Force.
Source: United States Department of Justice
A Guatemalan national unlawfully residing in the United States pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of aggravated identity theft and false statements related to the submission of a fraudulent application to sponsor an unaccompanied alien child (UAC).
According to court documents, Felix Coc Choc, 29, of Rogers, Arkansas, submitted an application to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) under penalty of perjury to sponsor and obtain custody of a UAC after the UAC entered the United States illegally.
As admitted in the plea agreement, after the 16-year-old Guatemalan UAC entered the United States illegally in January 2023, Coc Choc submitted an application to sponsor the UAC, falsely claiming to be the UAC’s brother, J.C.J. Coc Choc also provided to ORR J.C.J.’s Guatemalan national identification card and birth certificate in support of the sponsorship application. After initially denying that he was using another individual’s identity, Coc Choc admitted to impersonating J.C.J and then submitted a sponsorship application in his true name. ORR denied this application as a result of the fraud.
Coc Choc pleaded guilty to one count of making a false, fictitious or fraudulent statement and one count of aggravated identity theft. At sentencing, Coc Choc faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the false statement count, and a mandatory consecutive penalty of two years in prison on the aggravated identity theft count. The Court will schedule Coc Choc’s sentencing at a later date. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General is investigating the case. U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Legal Attaché team in Guatemala, HSI’s Center for Countering Human Trafficking in Washington, D.C. and ORR provided valuable assistance.
Joint Task Force Alpha Trial Attorneys Aaron Jennen and Nicole Lockhart and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Craig for the Middle District of Louisiana are prosecuting the case, with substantial assistance from Samantha Usher of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Arkansas.
The investigation and charges are 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 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 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 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) 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 440 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organizers, and significant facilitators of alien smuggling and/or trafficking; more than 390 U.S. convictions; more than 330 significant jail sentences imposed, and forfeitures of substantial assets.
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 other transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Today, the Department of Justice released an opinion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development which addresses the relationship between the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) and Section 214 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1980. The Office of Legal Counsel’s interpretation finds that in order to receive housing benefits administered under Section 214, an alien must satisfy the eligibility requirements of both PRWORA and Section 214.
Under this finding, certain categories of aliens currently deemed eligible — such as Haitian entrants and many parolees — are in fact ineligible to take advantage of these HUD benefits. Even those categories of aliens who remain eligible must now satisfy further requirements before applying for such benefits. This finding creates further safeguards to protect American taxpayer resources, specifically in government-funded housing, from abuse by non-American citizens.
“Today’s opinion will prohibit ineligible aliens from draining funds for housing programs that are meant to help AMERICAN citizens,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “The current inadequate safeguards in place incentivize illegal immigration and make housing less affordable – this Department of Justice will continue working with HUD to put the American people first.”
“For far too long, the left abused the law, twisted interpretations, and helped illegals and ineligibles at the expense of taxpayers,” said HUD Secretary Scott Turner. “Meanwhile, millions of Americans languished on housing waitlists across the country. Today’s Department of Justice opinion upholds the law and reaffirms the Trump administration’s commitment to putting the American people first.”
This action comes as a follow-on to the Office’s December opinion about the meaning of “Federal means-tested public benefits” in PRWORA, which reversed a Clinton-era interpretation that had allowed ineligible aliens to receive federal welfare benefits.
Read the full opinion here.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that Edward Wilkie, 31, of Tonawanda, NY, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael J. Roemer to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin, which carries a minimum penalty of five years in prison, a maximum penalty of 40 years, and a $5,000,000 fine.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
TUCSON, Ariz. – Jesus Guillermo Valenzuela-Ramirez, 30, of Imuris, Sonora, Mexico, was sentenced on Feb. 17, 2026, by Chief U.S. District Judge Jennifer G. Zipps to 90 months of imprisonment, followed by four years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. Valenzuela-Ramirez was convicted of Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine.As part of this conspiracy, on July 1, 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona, Valenzuela-Ramirez and his co-conspirators possessed approximately 100 pounds of methamphetamine, which they intended to deliver to another individual that evening.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
United States Attorney Kurt L. Wall announced that U.S. District Judge Brian A. Jackson sentenced Hannah Kinchen, age 41, of Gonzales, Louisiana, to 125 months in federal prison following her conviction for receiving child sexual abuse material produced by a photographer she arranged to take the images.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Larry Johnson, 26, a previously convicted felon residing in the District of Columbia, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 50 months in prison in connection with his illegal possession of a 9mm pistol that he fired twice inside of an apartment where a woman and her two children were present, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
PHOENIX, Ariz. – A Polacca woman convicted of drunk driving and killing her 14-year-old son was sentenced on Feb.17, 2026, in federal court, announced U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine. Marian Marsha Josytewa, 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Steven P. Logan to 51 months in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release. In August 2025, following a six-day trial, a federal jury found Josytewa guilty of one count of Involuntary Manslaughter, one count of Assault Resulting in Serious Bodily Injury, two counts of Child Abuse, and one count of Driving Under the Influence.