Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Orlando, FL — Delon Richard Smith, 47, of Daytona, Florida, was sentenced Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida to 327 months in prison after pleading guilty in October 2025 to two charges of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion and one count of conspiracy to commit the same. Smith was ordered to pay the two victims $4800 in restitution.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Today, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida stood shoulder to shoulder with our law enforcement family at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Miami Field Office to honor the lives and service of Special Agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger, who tragically lost their lives in the line of duty five years ago while protecting our community.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Delon Richard Smith, 47, of Daytona, Florida, was sentenced Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida to 327 months in prison after pleading guilty in October 2025 to two charges of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion and one count of conspiracy to commit the same. Smith was ordered to pay the two victims $4800 in restitution.
“This sentence reflects the abhorrent acts of violence the defendant used to exploit the victims for his own personal profit,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Commercial sex trafficking depends on the systematic dehumanization of its victims and debasing victims by treating them as commodities. The Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section will prosecute those who, like Smith, use people like disposable products for an illegal business and violate them in endless ways when doing so.”
“The manipulation and brutality used by the defendant in this case against his victims was egregious and reprehensible,” said U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe for the Middle District of Florida. “Due to the hard work and diligence of our local and federal law enforcement partners, and courage of the victims, this criminal was brought to justice.”
“Sex trafficking is a violent crime, not a business,” said Special Agent in Charge Jason Carley of the FBI Jacksonville Field Office. “This defendant deliberately used force and coercion to control and exploit vulnerable women to line his own pockets. Crimes like this are not victimless. They cause lasting trauma and undermine the safety of our communities. The FBI will continue working with our partners to investigate those who use violence and exploitation to profit and ensure they are held fully accountable for their actions.”
According to court documents, Smith used threats and physical violence to compel the two victims to engage in commercial sex in the Daytona Beach area. Smith recruited the two victims separately in 2021 and 2022 by offering them narcotics and an opportunity to make money. He posted online commercial sex advertisements featuring one of the victims’ photographs. He then transported the victims to various locations to meet commercial sex buyers.
Smith kept all the money or payments for the commercial sex acts and would routinely force the victims to continue engaging in commercial sex for his profit by inflicting severe physical harm on the victims. Smith would regularly punch and choke the victims, while talking about his gang membership in the Bloods, to threaten and coerce them. On one occasion, to punish the victim for not bringing in enough money, he discharged a firearm and held the hot barrel of the weapon to the victim’s face. In another instance, when one victim left the hotel room without Smith’s explicit permission, he hit one of the victims in the head with the butt of a gun and dragged her into his car by her hair.
The FBI Jacksonville Field Office investigated the case, with assistance from the Daytona Police Department.
Trial Attorney Leah Branch of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Megan Testerman and Kaley Austin-Aronson for the Middle District of Florida prosecuted the case.
Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report that information to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information about human trafficking, please visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org. Information on the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found at www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Ocala, Florida – Clarence Christofer Ward, a/k/a Khaled Yaqud Mansur-El, has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Barber to five years in federal prison for 1 count of wire fraud, 10 counts of money laundering, and 1 count of making a false claim to the IRS. As part of the sentence, the court ordered Ward to forfeit $4,197,981.28 in proceeds derived from his wire fraud offense. The court also ordered the forfeiture of Ward’s interest in four residential properties in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which were purchased with approximately $1,584,300 in fraud proceeds and were involved in money laundering. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
United States Attorney Ron Parsons announced today that Chief Judge Roberto A. Lange, U.S. District Court, has sentenced a Lennox, South Dakota woman convicted of Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Substance. The sentencing took place on January 26, 2026.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Orlando, Florida – Jack James Molina (39, St. Cloud) has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge John Antoon II to four years and nine months in federal prison for attempted smuggling of goods from the United States. The court also ordered Molina to forfeit the 11 firearms that he attempted to smuggle. Molina pleaded guilty on October 16, 2025. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Orlando, Florida – Amaris Delapena (50, Windermere) has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron to four years and six months in federal prison for committing wire fraud and bank fraud. As part of her sentence, the court also entered an order of forfeiture in the amount of $194,060.09, the proceeds Delapena obtained from the fraud scheme. Delapena was found guilty by a federal jury on June 20, 2025. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Fort Myers, Florida – Christopher Davies (32, Cape Coral) has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sheri P. Chappell to 27 months in federal prison for making a threat to assassinate the President of the United States. Davies pleaded guilty on October 29, 2025. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
Source: United States Department of Justice
Today, the United States filed a denaturalization action in the Eastern District of New York against Gurmeet Singh, a native of India, who, according to the Department of Justice’s complaint, concealed and misrepresented in his naturalization application that he had previously kidnapped and sexual assaulted a female passenger of his taxicab. After his passenger fell asleep in the backseat, he drove her to a side street and the passenger awoke to find Singh on top of her with a knife to her throat, telling her to stop resisting if she wanted to live. Singh then bound and gagged her, blindfolded her, removed her clothes, and raped her.
Singh concealed these acts throughout his naturalization proceedings and naturalized as a U.S. citizen on Oct. 19, 2011. After naturalizing, Singh was convicted in New York of Rape in the First Degree and Kidnapping in the Second Degree as a Sexually Motivated Felony and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
“This Department of Justice will continue to strip citizenship from those who commit heinous crimes and conceal them during the naturalization process,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “American citizenship is a great and sacred privilege that must be earned honestly.”
“This individual’s vile acts prove that he should not have been granted U.S. citizenship,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Singh entered our country through family-based immigration laws, then committed horrible crimes before lying about them to become a U.S. citizen. We will now correct this injustice.”
“The defendant in this case secured U.S. citizenship through deceit, and on the heels of committing the heinous crimes of rape and kidnapping,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr for the Eastern District of New York. “This case, brought to strip the defendant of citizenship that he did not earn and to which he was not entitled, demonstrates our Office’s commitment to protecting the American people and defending the sanctity of U.S. citizenship.”
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a naturalized U.S. citizen’s citizenship may be revoked, and his certificate of naturalization canceled, if the naturalization was illegally procured or procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.
This case was investigated by the Civil Division’s Office of Immigration Litigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. The litigation is being handled by Trial Attorney Christopher Lyerla and Assistant U.S. Attorney Layaliza Soloveichik for the Eastern District of New York and reviewed by John Inkeles, Chief, Office of Immigration Litigation, Affirmative Litigation Unit.
The claims made in the complaint are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
ROANOKE, Va. – A South Boston, Va., man was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for brandishing a machine gun and possessing distribution quantities of cocaine. Following a two-day jury trial in May 2025, Richard Elijah Jacobs, 27, was found guilty of possessing with the intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana, possessing a machine gun in furtherance of drug trafficking, and possessing firearms as a convicted felon.