Month: June 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Ian Wyatt Justice, 20, of Huntington, was sentenced to six years in prison, to be followed by four years of supervised release, for possession with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on March 16, 2021, law enforcement officers were conducting a drug investigation and observed Justice enter a Charleston Avenue residence in Huntington. The officers executed a search warrant at the residence on that date and Justice, who was present just prior to the search, was arrested. During the search, officers seized a number of items, including fentanyl, three firearms, and items used to prepare fentanyl for distribution. Justice admitted that he intended to distribute the fentanyl and that he had been selling fentanyl in Huntington in the months leading up to the search.

United States Attorney Will Thompson made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and the Huntington Police Department

United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers imposed the sentence. Assistant United States Attorney Joseph F. Adams prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:22-cr-9.

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Source: United States Department of Justice News

HOUSTON – A 45-year-old man has been sent to federal prison following his conviction for a child pornography charge while on deferred adjudication for another similar offense, announced U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery.

Manuel Candia-Reuter pleaded guilty June 9, 2021.

Today, U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller ordered Candia-Reuter to serve 180 months in prison to be immediately followed by 10 years of supervised release. During that time, he will have to comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the internet. Candia-Reuter is a registered sex offender and had been  serving a deferred sentence for previous possession of child pornography.

The investigation began in March 2019, when authorities discovered Candia-Reuter had uploaded or distributed child pornography material via Skype.

Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Candia-Reuter’s residence July 12, 2019. At that time, Candia-Reuter admitted to distributing images of child pornography to another user on Skype.

Candia-Reuter also acknowledged he had been attending therapy sessions while on deferred adjudication for possession of child pornography. He relapsed and again began searching for child pornography.

He has been and will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

The FBI conducted the investigation with assistance of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kimberly Ann Leo and Sherin Daniel prosecuted the case, which was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section leads PSC, which marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and identifies and rescues victims. For more information about PSC, please visit DOJ’s PSC page. For more information about internet safety education, please visit the resources link on that page.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Brandon J. Sharp, 34, of Lorain, Ohio, was sentenced to more than 14 and a half years in prison on Tuesday, June 21, 2022, by U.S. District Judge Donald C. Nugent after he was convicted at trial of four counts of possession with the intent to distribute controlled substances.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, on June 29, 2020, law enforcement officers with the Lorain Police Department received an anonymous tip regarding the location of various amounts of narcotics stored under the bumper of a vehicle.  Police responded to the site and confirmed the presence of the drugs.

While police were investigating, a woman arrived at the scene and explained to officers that the vehicle was used by her boyfriend, Defendant Brandon Sharp, for work.  Sharp later spoke to police via phone and confirmed that the vehicle belonged to his employer.

Law enforcement investigators then obtained and executed a search warrant for the vehicle.  During the search, investigators seized various amounts of fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, heroin, cocaine and over $2,000 in U.S. currency.  Investigators also discovered a cell phone linked to Sharp and various documents and pieces of mail bearing Sharp’s name, phone number and address in the vehicle. 

Sharp was later arrested on December 28, 2020.

This case was investigated by the Lorain Police Department and the FBI.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert J. Kolansky and Vanessa V. Healy.

This case is part of Operation Synthetic Opioid Surge (S.O.S.)., an initiative that seeks to reduce the supply of deadly synthetic opioids and to identify wholesale distribution networks and international and domestic suppliers in Lorain County.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, 36, a Mexican citizen who had resided in Singapore and spent significant time in Russia, was sentenced yesterday in the Southern District of Florida to four years and one day in prison for acting within the United States on behalf of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General.

According to court documents, since 2019, Fuentes acted under the direction and control of someone he believed to be a Russian government official. Instructed by this Russian official, Fuentes arranged for an intermediary to lease a unit in a residential building in Miami-Dade County where a U.S. person, who had previously provided information about the Russian government to the U.S. government, resided.

Furthermore, at the direction of the same Russian official, Fuentes traveled to Miami in February 2020 to obtain the license plate number and parking location of the U.S. person’s car to provide to the Russian official upon his next trip to Russia.

Fuentes’s travel companion, at his request, took a photo of the U.S. person’s car. A WhatsApp message from Fuentes’s travel companion to Fuentes contained a close-up photograph of the specified U.S. person’s car. The manner in which Fuentes communicated with the Russian government official and his undertakings in this case are consistent with the tactics of the Russian intelligence services for spotting, assessing, recruiting and handling intelligence assets and sources.

Fuentes had not notified the U.S. Attorney General, as required by law, that he was acting in the United States as an agent of the Russian government.

Fuentes pleaded guilty in February 2022. U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks for the Southern District of Florida imposed the sentence, which included an order that the defendant be removed from the United States to Mexico promptly upon his release from confinement.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez for the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office, and Director of Field Operations Vernon T. Foret of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Miami Field Office made the announcement.

FBI and CBP investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Thakur of the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Matthew J. McKenzie of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section prosecuted the case.