Month: July 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Fairfax man was sentenced today to 52 months for conspiring to distribute between 15 and 45 kilograms of pills containing methamphetamine via the darknet.

According to court documents, from about May 2019 through December 2019, Tyler Pham, 39, conspired to distribute peach tablets advertised as Adderall, but in fact containing methamphetamine, nationwide through the U.S. mail. Pham used the moniker “addy4cheap” on darknet markets, the Empire Market and Cryptonia. Between August 2019 and December 2019, law enforcement agents conducted 20 controlled purchases from “addy4cheap” on both markets for a total of 767 peach tablets received, weighing approximately 268 grams total.

On Dec. 9, 2019, search warrants were executed at Pham and his co-conspirators’ residences, including the homes of Lien Kim Thi Phan, 37, Fairfax, and Hon Lam Luk, 35, Chantilly. In the home of Phan and Pham, agents found 95 peach tablets, and in Luk’s residence, investigators found over 6,000 peach tablets weighing approximately 2.2 kilograms, all of which resembled those advertised on “addy4cheap” and those received by law enforcement through controlled purchases.

As of Dec. 10, 2019, “addy4cheap” had completed 3,665 sales on the Empire Market and received 2,568 reviews. Based on these reviews, “addy4cheap” had received approximately $482,572.10 in sales for an approximate 44,872 pills sold. As of Nov. 7, 2019, “addy4cheap” had fulfilled 140 transactions on Cryptonia. 

Pham’s six co-conspirators all previously entered guilty pleas in connection with the conspiracy and were sentenced to over 13 years in prison combined. Phan and Duong Nguyen, 29, of Springfield received a sentence of time served for their roles in the conspiracy. Son Nguyen, 36, of Annandale, was sentenced to 34 months in prison for his role in the conspiracy. Dat Nguyen, 37 of Alexandria, and Trieu Hoang, 39, of Springfield, were sentenced to 39 months in prison for their roles in the conspiracy and Luk received 46 months imprisonment for his conduct.

Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office Criminal Division; George Scavdis, Special Agent in Charge, FDA Office of Criminal Investigations, Metro Washington Field Office; Greg L. Torbenson, Acting Inspector in Charge of the Washington Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; Colonel Edwin C. Roessler Jr., Fairfax County Chief of Police; and Jarod A. Forget, Special Agent in Charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Washington Field Division, made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema accepted the plea.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bibeane Metsch and Jay V. Prabhu are prosecuting the case.

This investigation was conducted by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Hi-Tech Opioid Task Force, which is composed of FBI agents and task force partners, including special agents and officers of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations, DEA, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and detectives from local assisting police agencies. The task force is charged with identifying and investigating the most egregious Dark Web marketplaces, and the vendors operating on the marketplaces who are engaged in the illegal acquisition and distribution of controlled substances, to include fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other opioids.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:21-cr-66, and related cases 1:20-cr-24, 1:20-cr-29, 1:20-cr-32, 1:20-cr-155, 1:20-cr-265; 1:20-cr- 266.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Earlier today, in federal court in Central Islip, Eduardo Portillo, also known as “Firuli” and “Tito” (Portillo), an associate of the violent transnational criminal organization La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the “MS-13,” was sentenced by United States District Judge Gary R. Brown to 25 years in prison for his role in the murder of 15-year-old Javier Castillo in Cow Meadow Park in Freeport.  The defendant, who was arrested in El Salvador and extradited to the United States to face these charges, pleaded guilty in September 2021 to racketeering, and admitted to his involvement in the Castillo murder and narcotics trafficking on behalf of the MS-13.  

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and Rodney K. Harrison, Commissioner, Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD), announced the sentence.

“With today’s sentence, Portillo learned there are very serious consequences for participating in the planning and execution of a murder so that he could gain membership in the MS-13 gang, a vicious criminal enterprise whose members have no regard for human life or the rule of law,” stated United States Attorney Peace.  “That the victim in this case was a 15-year-old boy is all the more tragic, and it is my hope that dogged work of law enforcement in tracking down the defendant in El Salvador, his extradition to the Eastern District of New York, and the decades the defendant will spend in prison, brings some measure of closure to the family of the young victim.” 

Mr. Peace expressed his appreciation to the investigators and analysts from the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force and Transnational Anti-Gang (TAG) Unit in El Salvador, the Nassau County Police Department, and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs for its assistance with Portillo’s extradition.

“Today’s sentencing sends another clear message that gang violence will not be tolerated and the extradition of this suspect proves law enforcement will go to great lengths to ensure justice is served,” stated SCPD Commissioner Harrison said. “I would like to thank all our law enforcement partners for bringing this case to a successful conclusion and hope this sentencing brings some sense of closure for the victim’s family.”

Portillo and other MS-13 members targeted Castillo for death because he was believed to be a member of the 18th Street gang, one of MS-13’s principal rivals.  On October 10, 2016, Portillo, who was friendly with Castillo, and other Brentwood-based members of the Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside (Sailors) clique of the MS-13, convinced Castillo to go with them to Freeport – approximately 20 miles away – to smoke marijuana.  There, they lured Castillo to an isolated marsh area in Cow Meadow Park, where Portillo and his co-conspirators attacked Castillo, taking turns hacking him to death with a machete.  Afterwards, the MS-13 members dug a hole and buried Castillo’s body.  The victim’s brother informed the SCPD that he was told by a person who had ties with the MS-13 to stop looking for Castillo, because he was already “gone and buried.”  Castillo’s body was recovered one year later in October 2017.

Portillo, who was illegally in the United States at the time of the murder, was deported to El Salvador before he was indicted for Castillo’s murder.  However, after he was indicted, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York (USAO-EDNY) and FBI obtained an INTERPOL Red Notice for Portillo.  On February 23, 2019, El Salvador’s Policía Nacional Civil (PNC) Centro Antipandillas Transnacional (CAT) Unit, who are assigned to the Transnational Anti-Gang (TAG) Unit, located Portillo and arrested him in Morazán, El Salvador on the Red Notice.  The USAO-EDNY subsequently requested Portillo’s extradition and, on November 6, 2020, he was extradited to the United States. 

Today’s sentencing is the latest accomplishment in a series of federal prosecutions by the USAO-EDNY targeting members and associates of the MS-13, a violent, transnational criminal organization.  The MS-13’s leadership is based in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, but the gang has thousands of members across the United States.  With numerous branches, or “cliques,” the MS-13 is the most violent criminal organization on Long Island.  Since 2003, hundreds of MS-13 members, including dozens of clique leaders, have been convicted on federal felony charges in the Eastern District of New York.  A majority of those MS-13 members have been convicted on federal racketeering charges for participating in murders, attempted murders, and assaults.  Since 2010, this Office has obtained indictments charging MS-13 members and associates with carrying out more than 60 murders in the district, and has convicted dozens of MS-13 leaders, members, and associates in connection with those murders.  These prosecutions are the product of investigations led by the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force, which is comprised of agents and officers of the FBI, SCPD, Nassau County Police Department, Nassau County Sheriff’s Department, Suffolk County Probation Office, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, New York State Police, Hempstead Police Department, Rockville Centre Police Department, and New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. 

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Long Island Criminal Division.  Assistant United States Attorneys Paul G. Scotti, Justina L. Geraci, and Megan E. Farrell are in charge of the prosecution.

The Defendant:

EDUARDO PORTILLO (also known as “Firuli” and “Tito”)
Age: 25
Residence: San Francisco Gotera, Morazán, El Salvador; formerly of Central Islip and Brentwood, New York

Docket:  16-CR-403 (S-7)(GRB)

Source: United States Department of Justice News

 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jayton Gill, 34, of Durham, N.C., appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge David C. Keesler today and pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and willful failure to file a tax return, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

Robert R. Wells, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in North Carolina, and Donald “Trey” Eakins, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Charlotte Field Office, join U.S. Attorney King in making today’s announcement.

According to filed court documents and today’s plea hearing, from at least 2015 to February 2021, Gill operated an unlicensed money transmitting business involving the exchange of millions of dollars of cash and other monetary instruments for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Monero. During the relevant time, Gill conducted thousands of transactions involving thousands of Bitcoins. As Gill admitted in court today, he advertised his unlicensed money transmitting business on various public websites and made claims on one such website that he had conducted more than 4,200 transactions with 2,700 different parties. Gill also conducted unlicensed money transactions in person and via the U.S. Postal Service.

Gill further admitted that he failed to file U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns for tax years 2015 through 2019, despite earning significant income from his unlicensed money transmitting business and from investing in cryptocurrency.

Gill was released on bond following his guilty plea. The charge of operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The maximum penalty for willful failure to file a tax return is one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

The FBI and IRS-CI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Ryan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte is in charge of the prosecution.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that LAUREN DiMASSA, formerly known as LAUREN KNOX, 38, of West Haven, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford to a conspiracy charge stemming from her role in a scheme to steal COVID relief funds from the City of West Haven.

According to court documents and statements made in court, DiMassa conspired with her husband, who at the time was a West Haven city employee, to steal money that was provided to West Haven to alleviate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Between approximately July 2020 and October 2021, DiMassa’s husband submitted fraudulent invoices to West Haven for services related to a Youth Violence Prevention Program and for Youth Violence COVID-19 Associated Expenses.  These invoices listed charges for in-home counseling, cleaning supplies, special needs hourly service, wi-fi assistance for low/moderate income families, counseling services, license fees, a fall youth clinic, meals, support group supplies, equipment rental, and youth clinic support group.  The payment vouchers requested that checks be made out to directly to DiMassa.

West Haven made 16 payments totaling approximately $147,776.10 to DiMassa, who never provided any services to the City of West Haven.  DiMassa and her husband used the proceeds for their own benefit.

DiMassa pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years.

DiMassa was arrested on February 18, 2022.  She is released on a $50,000 pending sentencing, which is not scheduled.

As to DiMassa’s husband, who has been charged with related offenses, U.S. Attorney Avery stressed charges are only allegations, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General for Investigations.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ray Miller.

Individuals with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 are encouraged to report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721, or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.