Category: MIL-OSI

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Editor’s Note: This matter occurred on date indicated but not published at that time due to the government shutdown. Press release posted and made available following the return to normal operations.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Peter Yang, 34, of Fresno, was sentenced today to 25 years in prison for sexual exploitation of a child, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced.

The sentence will be followed by 15 years of supervised, during which time Yang’s access to children, computers, and the internet will be restricted. He was also ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution, and he will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from custody.

According to court documents, between November 2021 and March 2022, Yang communicated with a 15-year-old victim in Missouri on the gaming platform Among Us, and then through Discord and FaceTime calls. Yang coerced the victim into creating and then transmitting sexually explicit images of the victim to Yang. Yang also discussed traveling from California to Missouri to meet the victim in person at a motel near the victim’s residence.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Christian County Sheriff’s Office in Missouri and the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, with assistance from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gappa prosecuted the case.

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

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Fort Myers, FL – U.S. District Judge Kyle Dudek has sentenced Derick Desir (28, Cape Coral) to 3 years and 10 months in federal prison for his role in a firearm trafficking conspiracy. Desir pleaded guilty on July 23, 2025, to conspiring to make a false statement to a firearms dealer and making false statements to a firearms dealer.

According to court records, in May 2022 Desir joined a conspiracy to “straw purchase” handguns on behalf of others. In June 2022, in coordination with another conspirator, Desir purchased approximately twelve Glock handguns across seven transactions from six different federally licensed firearms dealers in Lee County.  While making these firearms purchases, Desir falsely represented to each firearm dealer that he was the “actual buyer or transferee” of the firearms, when he knew that the firearms he was purchasing would be trafficked to Canada by others. At least five of the twelve handguns purchased by Desir during the conspiracy have since been recovered in Canada during various Canadian law enforcement investigations.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Homeland Security Investigations. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Simon Eth.

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. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

James Donald Vance, Jr. Posted Threats to Kill on Bluesky 

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN – U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Timothy VerHey today announced that Grand Rapids resident James Donald Vance, Jr., age 67, was sentenced to two years in federal prison for posting threatening communications online, including threats to kill the President and Vice President of the United States, and one of the President’s children. Vance was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney in Kalamazoo, Michigan, who described the crime as “grievous conduct” that required a prison sentence to deter others from making similar threats.

In March and April 2025, Defendant James Vance, using the alias “Diaperjdv,” posted several threatening posts on the social media service Bluesky in which he made specific threats to kill four people, including President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance. In one message, he proclaimed that he did not care whether he was shot by Secret Service or would spend the rest of his life in prison for his actions. He pled guilty to two felony offenses: threatening to kill or injure the President and Vice President and interstate threatening communications. Each violation carries a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

This is the second time in one month that a defendant has been sentenced in the Western District of Michigan for threatening to kill the President. On October 20, 2025, Richard James Spring of Comstock Park was sentenced to serve 18 months in prison and fined $2,000 by U.S. District Judge Jane M. Beckering in Grand Rapids. Spring pled guilty to threatening to kill President Trump after committing rape

United States Attorney Timothy VerHey stated, “The advent of the internet gives us all an opportunity to engage in the healthy exchange of ideas that are so important to a democracy. But some would rather use this tool to threaten and intimidate, conduct that causes fear and damages our democratic ideals. When Vance said he planned to kill our President and the Vice President simply because he disagreed with them, he crossed a line we all understand and so had to be punished.”

“Threats against our nation’s leaders and their families will not be tolerated,” said William Shink, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service’s Detroit Field Office. “Individuals who threaten the President, Vice President or any U.S. Secret Service protectee will be investigated and held accountable for their actions.”

Both matters were investigated by the Grand Rapids office of the United States Secret Service.

 

 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that on October 30, 2025, HERNAN AYALA, 33, of Manchester, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver in Hartford to 348 months of imprisonment, followed by 40 years of supervised release, for child exploitation offenses related to his sexual abuse of a minor.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in March 2024, the Manchester Police Department received a complaint that a minor female had been sexually abused by Ayala.  The minor female reported that Ayala had engaged in sexual conduct with her for more than eight years, and that Ayala had recorded his sexual abuse of her on his cellphone.  On that date, investigators searched Ayala’s residence and seized several electronic devices, including his iPhone.  Analysis of the seized phone revealed numerous videos and images of Ayala engaging in sexual conduct with the minor victim.

Ayala has been detained since his arrest on related state charges on March 9, 2024.  On July 8, 2025, he pleaded guilty in federal court to production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

This matter was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Manchester Police Department, the Glastonbury Police Department, and the Connecticut Center for Digital Investigations.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nancy V. Gifford.

U.S. Attorney Sullivan thanked the State’s Attorney’s Offices for the Judicial Districts of Hartford and Tolland for their cooperation in the investigation and prosecution of this case.

This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

PHOENIX, Ariz. – During this week of enforcement operations from November 8, 2025, through November 14, 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona has brought immigration-related criminal charges against 184 defendants. Specifically, the United States filed 107 cases in which aliens illegally re-entered the United States, and the United States also charged 67 aliens for illegally entering the United States.  In its ongoing effort to deter unlawful immigration, the United States also filed 9 cases against individuals responsible for smuggling illegal aliens into and within the District of Arizona. Protecting law enforcement officers is a key part of border vigilance, and federal prosecutors also charged one defendant for assaulting a Border Patrol agent.

These cases were referred or supported by federal law enforcement partners, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE ERO), ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Recent matters of interest include:

United States v. Martin Diego Ramirez-Granillo: On November 12, 2025, Martin Diego Ramirez-Granillo was charged by complaint with Transportation of an Illegal Alien and Reentry of Removed Alien.  Ramirez-Granillo was pulled over by an Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) trooper for suspected violations of Arizona law. During the encounter the trooper suspected a human smuggling event and contacted U.S. Border Patrol for assistance.  Border Patrol Agents responded to the scene to conduct an immigration inspection. Ramirez-Granillo and the passenger were determined to be citizens of Mexico, illegally present in the United States.  Ramirez-Granillo was also determined to have previously been removed from the United States.  Case No. 25-06444MJ

United States v. Anthony Shawn Hobbs: On November 13, 2025, Anthony Shawn Hobbs was charged with transportation of illegal aliens for profit.  Hobbs was initially seen driving southbound on Interstate 19 as the only occupant of a Toyota Corolla.  Shortly after, he was observed driving on State Route 82 with multiple visible occupants in the vehicle and the trunk was open and the lid was flapping.  When Border Patrol agents stopped his sedan, he had four illegal aliens in the vehicle. Case No. 25-14313MJ

These cases are 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. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN). 

A criminal complaint is a formal accusation of criminal conduct. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

CASE NUMBER:             25-06444MJ
                                       25-14313MJ                                     

RELEASE NUMBER:    2025-160_November 14 Immigration Enforcement

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For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/
Follow the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, on X @USAO_AZ for the latest news.

 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Department of Justice announced that Clift Seferlis, 55, of Garrett Park, Maryland, entered a plea of guilty today before U.S. District Judge Mark A. Kearney on 17 counts of mailing threatening communications and eight counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs, arising from numerous threats sent to Jewish organizations and entities.

Seferlis was charged with those offenses by information last month, following his arrest in June on a criminal complaint and warrant in connection with such threats.

As presented in court filings and admitted to by the defendant, from at least March 2024 through at least June 2025, Seferlis used the United States mail to transmit at least 40 letters and at least two postcards to more than 25 Jewish organizations and entities located in multiple jurisdictions, including, but not limited to, synagogues, Jewish museums, Jewish community centers, Jewish schools, Jewish non-profit organizations, and a Jewish delicatessen. In many of these letters and postcards, Seferlis threatened to destroy physical buildings and/or to injure individuals.

Specifically, Seferlis caused the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to deliver threatening communications to these institutions on or about the following dates:

• Jewish Institution 1, a synagogue in Washington, D.C.
  • (March 6, 2024; January 24, 2025)
• Jewish Institution 2, an entity in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • (April 4, 2024; July 29, 2024; January 18, 2025; March 5, 2025; May 7, 2025; May 9, 2025)
• Jewish Institution 3, an entity in Fairfax, Virginia
  • (January 18, 2025)
• Jewish Institution 4, a synagogue in Gaithersburg, Maryland
  • (February 3, 2025)
• Jewish Institution 5, an entity in Fairfax, Virginia
  • (February 7, 2025)
• Jewish Institution 6, a synagogue in Hagerstown, Maryland
  • (March 2025)
• Jewish Institution 7, an entity in Rockville, Maryland
  • (May 12, 2025)
• Jewish Institution 8, an entity in Washington, D.C.
  • (May 29, 2025; June 3, 2025)
• Jewish Institution 9, an entity in Washington, D.C.
  • (June 3, 2025)
• Jewish Institution 10, a synagogue in Brookline, Massachusetts
  • (June 3, 2025)

Each communication listed above contained a threat to injure the occupants of the receiving institution.

As court filings further detail, the defendant, by threat of force, intentionally obstructed and attempted to obstruct congregants and other attendees in the enjoyment of their free exercise of religious beliefs, by threatening to harm the occupants of:

• Jewish Institution 1, a synagogue in Washington, D.C.
  • (March 6, 2024; January 24, 2025)
• Jewish Institution 11, a synagogue in Rockville, Maryland
  • (January 25, 2025)
• Jewish Institution 12, a synagogue in Falls Church, Virginia
  • (January 31, 2025)
• Jewish Institution 13, a synagogue in Gaithersburg, Maryland
  • (February 3, 2025)
• Jewish Institution 14, a synagogue in Washington, D.C.
  • (February 10, 2025)
• Jewish Institution 15, a synagogue in Hagerstown, Maryland
  • (March 2025)
• Jewish Institution 16, a synagogue in Brookline, Massachusetts
  • (June 3, 2025)

Further, the offenses against Jewish Institution 12, Jewish Institution 13, Jewish Institution 14, and Jewish Institution 15 included the threatened use of a dangerous weapon, fire, or explosives.

Seferlis waived venue as to those institutions and synagogues not in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and agreed to be charged in this District.

Seferlis is scheduled to be sentenced on March 16. He faces a maximum penalty of 169 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $5,650,000 fine.

This case was investigated by FBI Philadelphia, with assistance from FBI Baltimore, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Montgomery County (Md.) Police Department, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland’s Greenbelt office. The Anti-Defamation League, Secure Community Network, and Delaware Valley Intelligence Center also provided assistance with this case. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S Attorney Mark Dubnoff for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Trial Attorney Taylor Payne of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

ST. LOUIS – A man from St. Louis, Missouri on Monday admitted recording his sexual abuse of a five-year-old.

Marshall Williams, 41, pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography. Williams admitted sexually abusing the victim and recording it with his cell phone in March of 2024. After the victim’s aunt found the videos, she alerted the victim’s mother and they confronted Williams, who fled. They then contacted the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

Williams is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 19, 2026. His crime carries a mandatory minimum prison term of 15 years, with a maximum term of 30 years.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson is prosecuting the case.

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

Source: United States Department of Justice

WASHINGTON – Today, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against California, Governor Gavin Newsom, and Attorney General Robert Bonta challenging their unconstitutional attempt to regulate federal law enforcement officers through the so-called “No Secret Police Act” and “No Vigilantes Act.”

Not only are the laws illegal attempts to discriminate against and regulate the federal government, but, as alleged in the complaint, the laws threaten the safety of federal officers who have faced an unprecedent wave of harassment, doxxing, and even violence. Threatening officers with prosecution for simply protecting their identities and their families also chills the enforcement of federal law and compromises sensitive law enforcement operations. The danger is acute.

“Law enforcement officers risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe, and they do not deserve to be doxed or harassed simply for carrying out their duties,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “California’s anti-law enforcement policies discriminate against the federal government and are designed to create risk for our agents. These laws cannot stand.”

“The Department of Justice will steadfastly protect the privacy and safety of law enforcement from unconstitutional state laws like California’s,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

“Assaults against federal agents have exploded over the last few months, thanks in part to recklessness political rhetoric aiming to delegitimize our brave agents,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California. “Unconstitutional laws such as this one further endanger our brave men and women protecting our community. Our immigration enforcement will continue unabated and unhindered by unconstitutional state laws enacted by irresponsible politicians.”

On her first day in office, Attorney General Bondi instructed the Department’s Civil Division to identify state and local laws, policies, and practices that facilitate violations of federal laws or impede lawful federal operations. Today’s lawsuit is the latest in a series of lawsuits brought by the Civil Division targeting illegal policies designed to thwart federal law enforcement across the country, including in New York, New Jersey, and Los Angeles, California. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

According to court records and evidence, on the afternoon of August 14, 2024, REID and his girlfriend were at the Hanes Mall Shopping Center located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Following a confrontation with another mallgoer, REID pulled out a gun and shot at the other man. The shot missed and went into a nearby store that was occupied by both employees and customers.  The other man fled towards the mall exit while REID chased him. Once outside the mall doors, REID shot the man in the back, hitting him in the spine. As the man lay injured on the ground, REID approached him and used the firearm to pistol-whip him multiple times. REID and his girlfriend then fled the mall and were found shortly afterward a nearby hotel.  At the time of the shooting, REID was on post-release supervision for another offense.