Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Tallahassee, Florida – Michael Dontavious James, 34, of Marianna, Florida, pleaded guilty in federal court to possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Pensacola, Florida – Marcel Mickles, 49, of Pensacola, Florida, was sentenced to 132 months in federal prison after previously pleading guilty to multiple counts of distributing cocaine, unlawful possession of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking crimes, and possession of firearms by a previously convicted felon.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – On September 8, 2026, Alexander Ortiz-Robles, a Puerto Rico Department of Treasury (Departamento de Hacienda or “PRDT”) employee was charged via information and pleaded guilty to participating in a bribery conspiracy involving the loss of approximately $6,772,578 in Puerto Rico tax revenue, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. Ortiz-Robles is scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. District Judge Gina R. Méndez-Miró on January 15, 2027. This represents the third PRDT employee to plead guilty within the last three months to a bribery or fraud scheme. Along with numerous other “gestors”, individuals, and corporate defendants that also pleaded guilty, the total loss of Puerto Rico tax revenue related to these schemes exceeds $14 million.
Source: United States Department of Justice
NEW ORLEANS, LA – First Assistant United States Attorney Michael M. Simpson announced today that MICHAEL LEWIS, (“LEWIS”), age 44, of Thibodaux, Louisiana was sentenced on September 3, 2026 to 48 months imprisonment, followed by 12 months of supervised release, by U.S. District Judge Brandon Long after previously pleading guilty to illegal use of communications facility to further a drug trafficking crime, in violation of Title 21, U.S.C. §843(b) and Title 18, U.S.C. §2.
Source: United States Department of Justice
BOSTON – The owner and operator of two Massachusetts restaurants pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to paying employees in cash over the course of six years without withholding and paying federal employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Source: United States Spaceforce
Air Force Global Strike Command, in partnership with Air Force Materiel Command and the Defense Logistics Agency, has launched the “North Star Readiness Campaign,” a sweeping initiative aimed at increasing the number of mission-capable B-52 Stratofortress and B-1 Lancer aircraft.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
TAYLOR DZICZEK, 44, formerly of Chicopee, Massachusetts, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sarala V. Nagala in Hartford to 90 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release for a bank robbery spree in 2021 and 2022.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Today, Jeriah Mast, 45, of Millersburg, Ohio, entered a guilty plea today to two counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors in Haiti.
According to court documents, Mast traveled from the United States to Haiti on multiple occasions between 2002 and 2019, including with the organization Christian Aid Ministries (CAM), where he sexually abused minors. Law enforcement obtained flight records showing that Mast had taken over 30 flights from the United States to Haiti between November 2002 and August 2018. Sentencing is set for Dec. 15, 2026.
“Jeriah Mast preyed on vulnerable children while working in Haiti as a missionary,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “His guilty plea to multiple counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors reflects both the severity of his crimes and our unwavering commitment to holding U.S. citizens accountable when they exploit children abroad. This type of predatory conduct — committed by someone entrusted with missionary work — represents a profound betrayal of trust, and today’s plea is an important step toward justice for the many victims harmed by Mast’s actions.”
“This defendant violated the innocence of children and violated the trust of those who supported his supposed missionary work,” said U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio. “It is reprehensible behavior that we will prosecute to the fullest. We thank the investigators from HSI and the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office for their hard work bringing this man to justice.”
“The defendant’s guilty plea underscores HSI’s critical mission to identify and investigate those who exploit children, including individuals entrusted with positions of authority, no matter where the crimes are committed,” said Special Agent in Charge Jared Murphey of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Detroit. “Together with our law enforcement partners, HSI Cleveland will continue working to hold child predators accountable in the United States and to seek justice for victims wherever our investigations take us.”
HSI Cleveland investigated the case with substantial assistance from the Holmes County, Ohio, Sheriff’s Office.
Trial Attorney Jessica L. Urban of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Margaret Kane and Jennifer King for the Northern District of Ohio are prosecuting the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the 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, visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Thao Duong and Lam Mai, a wife and husband from Garland, Texas, were sentenced today in federal court to charges stemming from their operation of a website selling veterinary drugs and pesticides smuggled into the United State from Mexico. Duong was sentenced to three months in prison, two years of supervised release, and a forfeiture of more than $1.5 million. Mai was sentenced to two years of probation.
“The defendants in this case traded human safety and environmental health for illicit profit,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Energy and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “The Justice Department will continue to investigate and prosecute transnational crimes to secure our border and protect the health and safety of Americans.”
“No one should profit from bringing illegal chemicals into the United States and poisoning American communities,” said Assistant Administrator Jeffrey A. Hall for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Illegal Mexican pesticides and animal steroids are a dangerous combination. The sentence in this case underscores the importance of the cooperative efforts of federal, state, and local agencies to disrupt smuggling operations and secure our nation’s borders from foreign harm.”
“Trafficking toxic chemicals into the United States is a blatant assault on our national security and public safety,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan R. Raybould for the Northern District of Texas. “These defendants pumped dangerous, foreign sourced pesticides and drugs into our country recklessly putting American communities at risk. This sentence makes clear we will be uncompromising in the prosecution of those who engage in illicit activities that threaten our people, our environment and the integrity of our borders.”
“The FDA is charged with ensuring that veterinary drugs meet rigorous safety standards. When individuals smuggle and distribute misbranded and unapproved veterinary drugs, they jeopardize the health of animals,” said Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Lamb of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Office of Criminal Investigations, Kansas City Field Office. “We will continue to pursue and bring to justice those who distribute misbranded and unapproved animal drugs unlawfully.”
According to filings and evidence presented in court, in approximately 2011, Duong began using various online platforms to sell animal care products to customers throughout the United States. The products she sold were used primarily by people engaged in rooster fighting ventures. Duong was not a veterinarian and did not require customers to provide veterinary prescriptions to purchase veterinary drugs. She also sold products such as Cipio Vet, Baytril Max, and Caterrol, which are produced in Mexico and not approved by the FDA for use in the United States. In 2017, she added the pesticides Taktic and Bovitraz to her inventory. Neither Taktic nor Bovitraz were registered with the EPA for sale or use and could not be sold legally in the United States.
In 2018, Duong started a website, which she used as her primary means of selling and distributing veterinary drugs and pesticides. After launching the site, Duong entered into agreements with several co-conspirators to purchase veterinary drugs and pesticides that she knew had been smuggled into the United States from Mexico.
The smuggled pesticides and veterinary drugs were brought into the United States through the Calexico Port of Entry in Imperial County, California, and placed in storage units near the border. Duong’s co-conspirators then shipped the products from California to Texas. Between 2018 and 2022, Duong obtained approximately $2.4 million worth of smuggled merchandise from her co-conspirators.
Lam Mai was the shipping manager for the website. After orders were received, he packaged the pesticides and veterinary drugs and distributed them to customers throughout the country using the U.S. Postal Service and other shippers.
According to the EPA, the active ingredient in the pesticides Taktic and Bovitraz is amitraz, which is toxic to bees if released into hives, and then ultimately to humans when it ends up in honey, honeycomb, and beeswax. Misuse of amitraz-containing products in beehives can result in exposures that could cause neurological effects and possibly reproductive effects in humans from the consumption of contaminated honey. Signs of neurotoxicity from exposure to amitraz have been documented in multiple animal species and include central nervous system depression, decrease in pulse rate, and hypothermia.
The EPA and FDA investigated the case, with assistance from Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Trial Attorney Lauren D. Steele of ENRD’s Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Vincent J. Mazzurco and Madeleine Case for the Northern District of Texas prosecuted the case.
ENRD is a member of the Department of Justice’s Trade Fraud Task Force, a cross-agency law enforcement effort that also involves the Criminal and Civil Divisions’ Fraud Sections, ENRD, the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Attorney’s Offices nationwide. The Task Force was created to leverage all of the Department’s tools and authorities to prevent trade fraud that deprives the government of vital revenue, threatens critical domestic industries, undermines consumer confidence, and weakens national security. The Task Force is designed to pursue enforcement actions against parties who seek to evade tariffs and other duties, as well as smugglers who seek to import prohibited goods into the American economy. The Justice Department encourages whistleblowers to alert the government to credible allegations of fraud, including utilizing the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act or through the Criminal Division’s Corporate Whistleblower Program at CorporateWhistleblower@usdoj.gov using the form available here.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, convicted Jihoon Park, 52, of Chantilly, Virginia, today for his participation in a fraud scheme that victimized individuals and defrauded a U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
“Jihoon Park claimed he would invest his community members’ life savings, retirement, and money and promised a high-yield return. Instead, he stole the millions of dollars entrusted to him to enrich himself,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Unsuspecting families and individuals suffered devastating financial crises because of Park’s crimes. The Criminal Division’s White Collar Section is using every available resource to stop criminals from destroying people’s livelihoods and retirements.”
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Park convinced people in his community to let him invest their money and grow their assets. He used his personal relationships and his former affiliation with a large national financial institution to gain victims’ trust and convince them to give him money to invest on their behalf. Park promised safe investments with high returns. But he lied. Instead, he transferred over $2.5 million from the multiple victims to himself. Among other things, he used the stolen money to buy a house and cryptocurrency for himself.
When one of the victims sued him, Park transferred assets to his wife and concealed millions of dollars in cryptocurrency assets before filing for bankruptcy and falsely claiming he had only $0.34 in financial assets and no cryptocurrency to avoid paying his victim creditors any money back from his fraud.
Park was convicted of three counts of wire fraud and two counts of bankruptcy fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 10, 2026. Park faces a maximum penalty of 20 years on the wire fraud counts and a maximum penalty of five years on the bankruptcy fraud counts. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The FBI Washington Field Office is investigating the case.
Trial Attorney Timothy J. Coley of the Criminal Division’s White Collar and Corporate Enforcement Section and Trial Attorney Zachary H. Ray of the National Fraud Enforcement Division’s Health Care Fraud Section are prosecuting the case, with substantial assistance from Assistant U.S. Attorneys Russell L. Carlberg and Jack Morgan for the Eastern District of Virginia.