ICE deports fugitive Mexican murder suspect captured in Los Angeles

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August 27, 2013

San Diego, CA

SAN DIEGO – A Mexican national, who fled to the United States to avoid prosecution for a murder three years ago in his native country, was turned over to Mexican authorities Monday following his recent capture in the Los Angeles area by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Mateo Perez Hernandez, 28, was remanded to the custody of representatives from the Mexican Attorney General’s Office by officers from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) at the San Ysidro border crossing Monday afternoon under tight security.
Perez is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by authorities in Mexico’s Baja peninsula charging him with the bludgeoning death of a Mexicali, Mexico, man in September 2010. Mexican authorities allege Perez struck the victim, Eduardo Fuentes, with a baseball bat after Fuentes and the suspect’s brother became embroiled in a heated argument in the street outside a party.
On Aug. 8, ERO San Diego received information from the FBI advising that Perez was wanted in Mexico for homicide. After conducting exhaustive background checks, ERO officers determined Perez was likely residing in La Habra. Working in conjunction with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles, a law enforcement lookout was relayed to the La Habra Police Department.
On Aug. 25, La Habra police officers encountered Perez and detained him on a drug charge. The La Habra Police Department alerted ERO’s San Diego’s Fugitive Operations Team who took Perez into custody.
Department of Homeland Security databases show Perez had been previously deported from the United States in February 2010. ERO reinstated Perez’s prior removal order, paving the way for his repatriation to Mexico Monday.
"Violent criminals who seek to escape responsibility for their actions by fleeing to the U.S. will find no sanctuary in our communities," said Gregory J. Archambeault, field office director for ERO San Diego. "As this case makes clear, ICE works closely with its international partners through its HSI Office of International Affairs to promote public safety and hold criminals accountable – no matter where they commit their crimes."
Monday’s removal demonstrates the expanded bilateral cooperation to identify, arrest and repatriate Mexican fugitives who have fled to the United States to avoid prosecution. The ICE Attaché Office in Mexico City is working closely with the Mexican government as part of this effort. Many of those arrests involved homicide-related charges or other violent crimes.
Since Oct. 1, 2009, ERO has removed more than 640 foreign fugitives from the United States who were being sought in their native countries for serious crimes, including kidnapping, rape and murder. ERO works with HSI’s Office of International Affairs, foreign consular offices in the United States, and Interpol to identify foreign fugitives illegally present in the country.

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Civil Rights and Immigration History Connected

NEW YORK August 26, 2013 (AP)

By DEEPTI HAJELA Associated Press

When 250,000 marchers converged on Washington in August 1963, the issues were jobs and freedom.
Now, as the crowds come together to mark the 50th anniversary of that seminal event in the civil rights movement, those issues have been joined by others, including one, immigration reform, that wasn't nearly on the political radar then like it is today.
"They were fighting for equality, and that's exactly what we're fighting for," said Mikhel Crichlow, 28, a native of Trinidad and Tobago now living in Brooklyn. Crichlow said he was going to Washington for the commemoration.
The push for comprehensive immigration reform was heard from the speakers' podium on Saturday, when tens of thousands marched to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and down the National Mall.
"It doesn't make sense that millions of our people are living in the shadows," said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who was a speaker at the 1963 event. "Bring them out into the light and set them on the path to citizenship."
Immigrant advocates came from near and far to be part of the commemoration. They included Casa de Maryland, founded by Central American immigrants in the D.C. area in 1985. The organization connected Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have A Dream" speech to the dreams of immigrants in the United States illegally who are looking for legal status.
"One of the big reasons immigrant groups wanted to participate was to show the connection," said Shola Ajayi, the group's advocacy director, who said Casa mobilized hundreds of people to attend.
The link between the civil rights activism and America's immigration reality brings history full circle as the demographic change being seen across the United States owes some of its existence to the decades-ago movement.
It was with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that the federal government radically altered immigration policy, opening America's doors to the world after decades of keeping them shut to entire geographic regions. That decision planted the seeds for the demographics explosion the country is living in now, a shift that historians say happened in part because of a hunger for change and equality created by the civil rights movement.
The movement "broke through the whole aura of political stagnation that was created by the McCarthy era and the Cold War, and allowed us to imagine another" world, said Mark Naison, professor of African-American studies and history at Fordham University in New York. "It was the civil rights movement ... that broke through the logjam and allowed people to talk about real issues in our domestic lives."
Immigration activist Renata Teodoro, who came here from Brazil as a child, studied the tactics of the civil rights movement and incorporated them into her own activism. The Boston resident has long been a proponent of granting legal status to immigrants who, like her, were brought to the U.S. as children.
The Civil Rights movement, she said, humanized the issues of the day, and by doing so, "that changed the culture, that's what changed a lot of hearts and minds."
While the United States has its roots in being a welcoming place for immigrants, that hasn't always been the case. It is true that a wave of new arrivals flooded U.S. shores in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but a movement to restrict who was allowed into the country took hold as well.
In 1882, Congress enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first major federal law to put immigration limits in place and the only one in American history aimed at a specific nationality. It came into being in response to fears, primarily on the West Coast, that an influx of Chinese immigrants was weakening economic conditions and lowering wages. It was extended in 1902.
Other laws followed, like the Immigration Act of 1917, which created an "Asiatic Barred Zone" to restrict immigration from that part of the world, and the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, which limited the number of immigrants from any country to 3 percent of those people from that country who had been living in the United States as of 1910.
The 1924 Immigration Act capped the number of immigrants from a particular country at 2 percent of the population of that country already living in the United States in 1890. That favored immigrants from northern and western European countries like Great Britain over immigrants from southern and eastern European countries like Italy.
It also prevented any immigrant ineligible for citizenship from coming to America. Since laws already on the books prohibited people of any Asian origin from becoming citizens, they were barred entry. The law was revised in 1952, but kept the quota system based on country of origin in the U.S. population and only allowed low quotas to Asian nations.
The American children of Italian and other European immigrants saw that law "as a slur against their own status" and fought for the system to be changed, said Mae Ngai, professor of history and Asian American studies at Columbia University. In fighting for change, they looked to the civil rights movement.
The political leaders who agreed with them saw it in the same terms, as a change needed for equality's sake, as well as to be responsive to shifting relationships with nations around the world.
Speaking to the American Committee on Italian Migration in June 1963, President John F. Kennedy cited the "nearly intolerable" plight of those who had family members in other countries who wanted to come to the U.S. and could be useful citizens, but were being blocked by "the inequity and maldistribution of the quota numbers."
Two years later, in signing into law a replacement system that established a uniform number of people allowed entry to the United States despite national origin, President Lyndon B. Johnson said it would correct "a cruel and enduring wrong in the conduct of the American nation."
Stephen Klineberg, sociology professor at Rice University in Houston, said the civil rights movement "was the main force that made that viciously racist law come to be perceived as intolerable," precisely because it raised questions about fairness and equality.

Colombian drug kingpin extradited to US following HSI, DEA investigation

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NEW YORK — After spending years in hiding, the Colombian leader of a cocaine trafficking conspiracy responsible for manufacturing hundreds of tons of cocaine annually in Colombia, trafficking it to various parts of the world, including the United States, and laundering tens of millions of dollars in proceeds from that narcotics trafficking activity was extradited to the United States Tuesday.
Daniel Barrera Barrera, aka Loco, 44, was arrested following an international law enforcement operation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
In March 2010, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Barrera as a "Special Designated Narcotics Trafficker," pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. Barrera was arrested in Venezuela Sept.18. Thereafter, he was sent to Colombia, from where the United States sought his extradition. The extradition of Barrera is the result of an ongoing Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation led by the DEA and HSI. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation's illegal drug supply.
HSI Executive Assistant Director James Dinkins said, "Barrera and his co-conspirators stand accused of running one of the largest cocaine trafficking operations in history. His extradition to the United States represents a major victory for the rule of law. While Mr. Barrera may have thought he was safe hiding and conducting his illicit activities in South American countries, an international team of law enforcement agencies worked tirelessly and cooperatively towards bringing him to justice."
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said, "For more than a decade, as alleged, Daniel Barrera Barrera has operated at the center of a truly evil web spun between his narcotics trafficking organization and two violent and sworn enemy terrorist organizations. By purchasing raw cocaine paste from the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC), which he processed in laboratories in areas controlled by the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), to whom he paid fees, Barrera's behemoth cocaine organization reached an annual production rate of upwards of 400 tons, enriching itself and the two terrorist organizations it paid off, as the indictment describes. This was truly cocaine with blood in its background. With his arrival in the United States, Barrera must now answer for his alleged crimes, and we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners, both here and abroad, to prosecute him and other alleged titans of the transnational drug trade."
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta E. Lynch said, "As alleged in the three indictments on which he was extradited, Daniel "Loco" Barrera was the kingpin of a stunningly prolific Colombian drug cartel, which flooded the globe with its deadly product. Barrera also allegedly wrought destruction closer to home, working with not one but two terrorist organizations responsible for decades of death and destruction in Colombia, all to ensure his deadly business ran smoothly. His extradition to the United States marks the fall of the last don of an organization marked by its worldwide reach, ruthless criminality and staggering profits. This investigation exemplifies the global cooperation necessary to combat international drug traffickers and our commitment to dismantle these criminal organizations from the highest levels down."
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Wifredo A. Ferrer said, "Daniel "Loco" Barrera's arrest and extradition is the direct result of strong international cooperation with Colombian authorities. It also reflects the hard work and perseverance of our law enforcement partners – both at home and abroad – whose dedicated efforts led to the capture of one of the world's most notorious drug traffickers. While Barrera evaded capture for several years, the time has finally come for him to answer for his crimes and face justice. As this case confirms, the United States will never tire in its pursuit of those who profit from the illegal drug trade."
DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart said, "Barrera allegedly worked with terrorist organizations in operating his drug trafficking syndicate, becoming one of the most prolific drug traffickers of the past twenty years. Charged with manufacturing upwards of 400 tons of cocaine a year, Barrera's alleged impact on the global trade of cocaine was immense – but so was DEA's response. Thanks to the cooperative efforts of our Colombian and U.S. law enforcement counterparts, Barrera's criminal career is over as he now faces charges that may bring him a life behind bars."
NYPD Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said, "If any one case epitomizes the nexus between terrorism and drug trafficking and the destructive impact on Colombian society, this is it; not to mention the crime and suffering cocaine addiction has fueled on the demand-side of the equation in the streets of New York. Barrera's extradition is a milestone, and we're indebted to the detectives, agents, and prosecutors who've made it possible."
Since 1998, Barrera has run a cocaine manufacturing and trafficking syndicate that processed approximately 30,000 kilograms of raw cocaine base each month into about the same amount of cocaine powder – in total, up to approximately 400 tons of cocaine annually.
Barrera purchased the raw cocaine base or paste from the designated terrorist group, the FARC, which has been the world's largest supplier of cocaine and which has engaged in bombings, massacres, kidnappings and other acts of violence within Colombia.
Barrera converted the raw cocaine into powder at laboratories he owned and operated in an area of Colombia controlled by the since demobilized terrorist group, the AUC. For years, the AUC's main political objective was to defeat the FARC in armed conflict, and it financed its terrorist activities through the proceeds of cocaine trafficking in AUC-controlled regions of Colombia.
Although Barrera purchased raw materials for cocaine production from the FARC, he was able to maintain his network of cocaine-processing laboratories in AUC-controlled territory, in part by paying monthly taxes to the AUC. The fees Barrera paid to the AUC also allowed him to safely move the processed cocaine through and out of Colombia, into locations on four continents – including into the U.S.
Barrera reaped tens of millions of dollars of profits from cocaine trafficking, which he laundered through illicit means.
The FARC and the AUC are both designated by the U.S. Department of State as foreign terrorist organizations.
Barrera is charged in the Southern District of New York with one count of conspiring to distribute and manufacture cocaine knowing it would be unlawfully imported into the United States. On that count, Barrera faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Barrera is charged in the Eastern District of New York with one count of conspiracy to launder money. On that count, Barrera faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Barrera is charged in the Southern District of Florida with one count of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and one count of conspiring to manufacture and distribute cocaine knowing that it would be unlawfully imported into the United States. On those counts, Barrera faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The investigation was completed under the auspices of the OCDETF, working in cooperation with HSI New York's El Dorado Task Force, the DEA's Bogota Country Office, the DEA's Caracas Country Office, the DEA's Miami Field Division, the DEA's New York Drug Enforcement Task Force – which is comprised of agents and officers of the DEA, the New York City Police Department, and the New York State Police – as well as HSI Bogota. The Colombian National Police, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs also provided considerable assistance.
The charges and allegations contained in the indictments are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Fugitive Appears in Court; Charged with Narcotics and Firearms Trafficking, Money Laundering, and Criminal Conspiracy

A former Passaic County man who has been a fugitive since 2009 made his initial court appearance Friday, February 8, 2013. The investigation leading to his apprehension was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Kujtim Lika, 47, formerly of Passaic County, N.J., appeared in Newark Federal Court Friday, February 8, 2013, to face numerous charges, including narcotics and firearms trafficking, money laundering, interstate transportation of stolen property, and criminal conspiracy.

According to court documents, three years ago, 26 individuals were charged – including Lika – with multiple crimes in connection with an investigation into several loosely connected Balkan criminal enterprises operating throughout New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Canada, and the Netherlands. The arrests were part of a federal joint operation that began in 2003.

Lika's case was featured on the television program "America's Most Wanted." He was subsequently apprehended May 24, 2012, by the Toronto Police Department/Toronto Task Force in Canada. He had been using the alias, "Dashamir Cela" at the time of his arrest.
He was detained without bail.

The charges and allegations against Lika are merely accusations, and the defendant is considered innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Maryland Man Arrested for 2012 Murder

An Anne Arundel County, Md. man was arrested recently at a New York airport after a warrant was issued charging him with the murder of a Frederick County, Md. man, whose body was found in the trunk of his car last December by a special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Michael A. Stahlnecker, 51, of the 1700-block of Fallsway Drive, Crofton, Md., is charged in the District Court of Maryland for Anne Arundel County with first and second degree murder, first and second degree assault, reckless endangerment, and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, violent crime.

Stahlnecker was arrested shortly before 6:00 a.m. Feb. 12 by HSI New York and Frederick special agents, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the U.S. Marshals Service, as he prepared to board a flight at the JFK International Airport. Investigators from the Maryland State Police (MSP) Homicide Unit, the State Apprehension Team and the Frederick County Narcotics Task Force were with federal agents and Port Authority Police when the arrest was made. Stahlnecker is currently held on a fugitive warrant in New York pending extradition proceedings to return him to Maryland.

The victim is identified as John P. Ryan, 37, of Frederick, Md., whose body was found in his 2007 Lexus in a parking lot in the 15000-block of Somerville Drive, Derwood, Md., on the afternoon of Dec. 3, 2012. Police had been searching for Ryan since his wife reported him missing to the Frederick Police Department on Nov. 29, 2012.

Since the MSP Homicide Unit became involved with this investigation, investigators have worked closely with the Frederick County Narcotics Task Force. HSI special agents along with task force investigators had initiated an investigation in the summer of 2012 into allegations that Ryan and associates were involved in the importation and distribution of marijuana. Stahlnecker was identified as a close associate of Ryan's in this operation.

MSP homicide investigators believe Ryan had a meeting scheduled with Stahlnecker on the morning of Nov. 28, 2012, at a warehouse leased by the suspect in the 3300-block of Laurel Fort Meade Road, Laurel, Md. A search warrant served at the address resulted in the recovery of Ryan's blood near the rear loading dock and on the bristles of a broom outside the rear of the business.

Investigators believe evidence indicates Ryan was shot at the warehouse location and then driven in his car to the address in Montgomery County where his body was found in the trunk. A motive has not been confirmed at this time, however, investigators determined Stahlnecker owed large amounts of money to several persons.

The investigation is continuing and the case is being prosecuted by the Anne Arundel State Attorney's Office.

3 California Men Indicted for Credit Card Fraud Scheme

Three Los Angeles-area residents have been indicted by a federal grand jury following a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. Secret Service that allegedly revealed the defendants orchestrated a far-reaching scheme to import and produce counterfeit debit and credit cards.

The defendants - Jose Rolando Renderos, 38, of Montebello; his son, Jose Ulloa, 18, of San Bernardino; and Milagro del Carmen Alvarez Hernandez, 27, of Montebello - are charged in a nine-count indictment handed down Tuesday, February 12, 2013, with a variety of violations, including access device fraud; possession of counterfeit access devices; and trafficking in counterfeit goods. All three defendants are currently in federal custody. They are expected to be arraigned Feb. 25.

According to the case indictment, defendants Renderos and Ulloa would obtain blank counterfeit credit cards from China. The phony cards bore the names and logos of such well-known financial institutions as American Express, Capitol One, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. The indictment alleges the father and son then embossed and activated the counterfeit cards using actual credit card numbers illegally obtained from point of sale devices.

"Credit card fraud scams like this result in major losses for the affected financial institutions and it's ultimately consumers who pay the price," said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge for HSI Los Angeles. "HSI will continue to work closely with its federal law enforcement partners to target criminal schemes that undermine the integrity of our financial system."

The defendants allegedly kept unembossed card stock in a storage unit in Monterey Park. When federal agents executed a search warrant at the location Feb. 6, they recovered a cache of more than 80,000 cards, along with an embossing machine and multiple credit card skimmers. So far, investigators have seized more than 90,000 counterfeit credit cards in connection with the case. Given the minimum credit limit of $500 per card, authorities conservatively estimate the value of the phony access devices at $45 million.

"Cooperation and partnerships have allowed us to focus our resources and respond quickly to uncover and prevent these types of crimes, whether they originate within or outside our borders," said U.S. Secret Service, Los Angeles Field Office Special Agent in Charge Joseph F. Beaty Jr.

The probe into the credit card scheme is still ongoing, but investigators believe the defendants may have been using the counterfeit cards to purchase high-end merchandise for re-sale. According to the indictment, Alvarez used one of the counterfeit cards in December to purchase more than $1,600 worth of merchandise at a children's boutique in Los Angeles.

The probe leading to the indictments of Tuesday, February 12, 2013, began two weeks ago after officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intercepted four packages from China that were being shipped to San Bernardino, Calif. Inside, officers discovered more than 12,000 counterfeit credit cards.

The probe is being spearheaded by HSI with substantial assistance provided by the Los Angeles Field Office and Riverside Residence Office of the U.S. Secret Service.

Federal Authorities Shut Down Mexican Drug Tunnel

On Wednesday, February 13, 2013, federal authorities shut down a just-completed, cross-border drug smuggling tunnel and seized more than 1,200 pounds of marijuana following a multi-agency investigation by the Nogales Tunnel Task Force, with significant assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol in Nogales.

Officers with the Tunnel Task Force, which is led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), were conducting surveillance in Nogales around noon and observed a van in a parking lot at the south end of Nelson Avenue, approximately 200 yards east of the Morley Pedestrian Gate. After noticing suspicious activity, the investigators approached the van, which was loaded with marijuana bundles. Two men near the van attempted to flee on foot, but were apprehended by task force officers not far from the tunnel and taken into custody.

Task force officers seized 22 bundles of marijuana from the van and 29 bundles of marijuana from inside the tunnel, weighing a total of 1,210 pounds.

The crude, hand-dug tunnel is approximately 68-feet-long and averages approximately two feet wide. The passageway does not contain any wooden shoring, ventilation or electrical equipment. The tunnel location closely parallels a March 2012, drug tunnel discovered in the same location. The tunnel entrance is located in the front yard of a private residence in Nogales, Mexico, and runs for approximately 26-feet underground before passing under the international boundary and running 42-feet on the U.S. side of the border. The tunnel exits on an embankment at the south end of Nelson Avenue.

Mexican authorities responded to the area and secured the tunnel entrance in Mexico. The tunnel will be guarded by Border Patrol agents until it is rendered unusable. The investigation remains ongoing, but investigators believe the tunnel had just been completed early Wednesday, February 13, 2013.

"Members of the Tunnel Task Force each bring unique capabilities from their respective agencies, which greatly enhances our ability to identify and interdict drug tunnels," said Eric Balliet, assistant special agent in charge of HSI Nogales. "In this case, the task force developed information that a tunnel was being excavated in the area. Through the diligence and hard work of all the participating agencies, we were able to shut this tunnel down just as it was completed, stopping its very first load of drugs."

In the last three years, federal authorities have discovered and shut down 26 completed cross-border smuggling tunnels in the Nogales area.

The Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) is an HSI-led, multi-agency U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiative to identify, disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations that seek to exploit vulnerabilities along U.S. borders. There are currently 34 BEST units deployed across the country, covering major seaports and southern and northern border regions. BEST units are composed of more than 750 law enforcement officers from more than 100 federal, state, local, tribal, and foreign law enforcement and intelligence resources.

BEST Nogales Tunnel Task Force is composed of full time members from HSI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Border Patrol, Nogales Police Department, the Santa Cruz County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. BEST Nogales Tunnel Task Force is responsible for identifying, investigating and eliminating illicit subterranean tunnels in one of the nation's busiest border areas with Mexico and combating the Transnational Criminal Organizations that finance, build and use them.