Month: September 2024

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Dominican national pleaded guilty today to his role in a human smuggling venture that resulted in the deaths of multiple migrants.

Fermín Montilla, 45, pleaded guilty to one count of bringing aliens to the United States at a place other than a designated port of entry resulting in death.

According to court documents, Montilla was involved in a maritime human smuggling venture that attempted to bring migrants illegally to the United States. On or about the evening of May 12, 2022, Montilla knowingly brought 48 persons to the United States unlawfully. Montilla’s actions caused the deaths of 11 of those people.

The defendant is expected to be sentenced later this year and faces a statutory maximum penalty of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow for the District of Puerto Rico; and Special Agent in Charge Rebecca González-Ramos of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Juan made the announcement.

HSI San Juan investigated this case, with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Puerto Rico Police Bureau.

Trial Attorney Angela Buckner of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and U.S. Coast Guard Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Helena Daniel for the District of Puerto Rico are prosecuting the case.

The investigation is being conducted under the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) program, a joint partnership between the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and HSI. The ECT program focuses on human smuggling networks that may present particular national security or public safety risks, or present grave humanitarian concerns. ECT has dedicated investigative, intelligence and prosecutorial resources. ECT coordinates and receives assistance from other U.S. government agencies and foreign law enforcement authorities.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Florida man was sentenced to 47 years in prison on Wednesday for his role in a scheme involving a series of home invasion robberies targeting cryptocurrency. Between Sept. 5 and Sept. 12, a total of 12 men have been sentenced for their role in the scheme.

According to court documents and evidence presented at the trial, Remy Ra St Felix, 25, of West Palm Beach, and his co-conspirators stole over $3.5 million from victims through SIM swapping and violent home invasions in which they held victims at gunpoint, assaulted them, and bound them with plastic cable ties. St Felix was convicted on June 25 by a federal jury in Greensboro, North Carolina, after a six-day trial. In addition to his sentence of incarceration, St Felix was sentenced to five years of supervised release and ordered to pay $524,153.39 in restitution.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, beginning in late 2020, St Felix’s co-conspirator, Jarod Gabriel Seemungal, 23, of West Palm Beach, and foreign co-conspirators stole cryptocurrency from victims’ accounts at exchanges. They obtained access to the accounts by gaining control of the victims’ phone numbers through SIM swapping. In 2022, Seemungal and his co-conspirators devised the home invasion scheme and recruited St Felix and others to assist with the invasions. St Felix later became the leader of the home invasion crew. In September 2022, St Felix and members of the crew committed violent home invasions in Delray Beach and Homestead, Florida. In Delray Beach, the victims were held at gunpoint in their home. In Homestead, a man and his family were held at gunpoint in their home, and then the man was abducted, held hostage, and beaten, before the man was found by law enforcement 120 miles from his home.

Later in 2022, St Felix and his crew targeted a Little Elm, Texas, man and made several trips to attempt the robbery. In December 2022, Seemungal and a Houston-based crew comprised of Deangelo Lee Contreras, 21, Tristian Rene Gamez, 21, Victor Gonzalez, 27, Jesus Salazar, 24, Cristian Valdez, 21, and Jesus Gerardo Valdez, Jr., 27, all of Houston, Texas, committed the home invasion. The Little Elm man and members of his family were held at gunpoint and restrained in their home for over three hours, during which time members of the crew tortured the man and his mother. The perpetrators stole approximately $150,000.00 in cash, two Rolex watches, and a valuable necklace and pendant.

In April 2023, St Felix and Elmer Ruben Castro, 23, of West Palm Beach, invaded the home of a wife and a husband in Durham, North Carolina. Prior to the invasion, St Felix’s co-conspirators obtained unauthorized access to the couple’s email account and conducted multiple days of surveillance on their home. During the invasion, the men violently assaulted the couple, threatened them with guns, and restrained them with plastic cable ties. They forced the man to provide access to his computer and cryptocurrency exchange account. Seemungal then remotely accessed the computer and stole over $150,000.00 worth of cryptocurrency. Conspirators laundered the funds through anonymity-enhanced cryptocurrencies, as well as “instant exchanges” and decentralized finance platforms that did not conduct know-your-customer checks.

In July 2023, St Felix traveled from Florida to Long Island, New York, to commit a home invasion of a family of five. Before St Felix could do so, however, he was arrested. At the time of his arrest, St Felix was in possession of two firearms and plastic cable ties.

Throughout the conspiracy, the conspirators communicated via an encrypted messaging application to plan their crimes. They identified targets and discussed how to gain entry to homes, the tools required to carry out the crimes, the technical aspects of cryptocurrency, and the patterns of life of their targets. They also circulated pictures of their targets and their targets’ homes. In addition to the home invasions described above, conspirators used the encrypted messaging application to plan additional home invasion robberies in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Orlando, Florida; and Georgia. Seemungal and the foreign co-conspirators financed the purchase of rental cars, hotel rooms, and firearms by co-conspirators Haisel Daily, 22, of West Palm Beach, and Ruben Matias Nicolopulos Silva, 22, of Lake Worth, Florida, to use during the robberies.

Seemungal was also sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release and ordered to pay $4,038,479.39 in restitution. Seemungal pleaded guilty on December 19, 2023, for his role in the scheme to steal cryptocurrency by hacking victims’ cryptocurrency accounts as well as the home invasion and robbery scheme.

On Feb. 6, Castro pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 1.

On May 29 and 30, nine of St Felix’s and Seemungal’s co-conspirators pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and were sentenced as follows:

• Jose Alfredo Avila, 27, of West Palm Beach, was sentenced on Sept. 11, to 20 years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release and ordered to pay $365,100.00 in restitution.
• Contreras was sentenced on Sept. 5, to 15 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release and ordered to pay $355,800.00 in restitution.
• Daily was sentenced on Sept. 5, to 25 years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release and ordered to pay $524,153.39 in restitution.
• Gonzalez was sentenced on Sept. 6, to 12 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $355,800.00 in restitution.
• Nathan Noel Quintana, 24, of Royal Palm Beach, Florida, was sentenced on Sept. 6, to 16 years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release and ordered to pay $365,100.00 in restitution.
• Silva was sentenced on Sept. 5, to 12 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release and ordered to pay $524,153.39 in restitution.
• Cristian Valdez was sentenced on Sept. 6, to 12 years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release and ordered to pay $355,800.00 in restitution.
• Jesus Valdez was sentenced on Sept. 6, to 12 years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release and ordered to pay $355,800.00 in restitution.
• Jesus Manuel Santiago, III, 23, of West Palm Beach, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 1.

Also, on May 29 and 30, Salazar and Gamez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to interfere with commerce through robbery. Salazar was sentenced on Sept. 5, to five years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release and ordered to pay $355,800.00 in restitution. Gamez was sentenced on Sept. 11, to eight years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $355,800.00 in restitution.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston for the Middle District of North Carolina; and Special Agent in Charge Robert M. DeWitt of the FBI Charlotte Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI Charlotte Field Office investigated the case, with valuable assistance from the Durham Police Department and the FBI New York, Miami, Houston, Mobile, and Newark Field Offices.

The National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) is partnered with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina in prosecuting the case. CCIPS/NCET Trial Attorney and Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Iverson for the Middle District of North Carolina and CCIPS Trial Attorney Brian Mund are prosecuting the case. The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Southern District of Florida, Southern District of Texas, and Eastern District of Texas provided valuable assistance.

NCET was established to combat the growing illicit use of cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Within CCIPS, NCET conducts and supports investigations into individuals and entities that enable the use of digital assets to commit and facilitate a variety of crimes, with a particular focus on virtual currency exchanges, obfuscation services, and infrastructure providers. NCET also sets strategic priorities regarding digital asset technologies, identifies areas for increased investigative and prosecutorial focus, and leads the department’s efforts to collaborate with domestic and foreign government agencies as well as the private sector to aggressively investigate and prosecute crimes involving cryptocurrency and digital assets.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Today, the Justice Department hosted hundreds of survivors, advocates, victim services professionals, community leaders, government officials, and partners from the criminal and civil justice systems in the Great Hall of the Robert F. Kennedy Building to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The event, which featured remarks from Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer and was broadcast live on the Department’s website, included a series of panel discussions focused on the impact of VAWA in addressing domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking in the last 30 years.

During the event, Attorney General Garland announced the designation of an initial set of 78 communities across 47 states, territories, and the District of Columbia for designation under Section 1103 of the VAWA Reauthorization Act of 2022. The Justice Department – through its U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Field Divisions – will partner with each designated jurisdiction to develop a plan to reduce intimate partner firearm violence and to prioritize prosecutions of domestic violence offenders prohibited under 18 U.S. Code Section 922(g) from owning firearms. The Justice Department anticipates additional jurisdictions to be designated as U.S. Attorneys’ Offices continue coordination with their local stakeholders. This effort will build on the $690 million in grant funding under VAWA programs that the Department announced earlier this week.

“Three decades ago, VAWA transformed our national response to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking,” said Attorney General Garland. “Its enactment sent a message: gender-based and intimate-partner violence is not just a private matter, not just a local matter, but a national crisis — one that our country was no longer willing to tolerate.  As we take stock of the progress that VAWA has advanced, the Department of Justice remains committed to using every tool at our disposal to end these forms of violence and support survivors.”

First enacted in 1994, VAWA was the first comprehensive federal law focused on preventing and addressing domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. When it was first passed, VAWA initially focused on providing resources and training to improve the responses and policies of law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts, as well as support victim services to address crimes historically treated as private matters. As Congress subsequently reauthorized VAWA, it enhanced its policies and expanded grant funding streams in 2000, 2005, 2013, and 2022. OVW has issued more than $11 billion in funding authorized by VAWA in its lifetime

As part of its observance of VAWA’s anniversary, the Department released this week a series of resources designed to bolster the coordinated community response to effectively responding to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The resources include updated guidance to support health care providers and other professionals, including criminal justice practitioners and victim advocates, when responding to the immediate needs of sexual assault patients.

The Department’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) published the third edition of the National Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations (SAFE Protocol) for adults and adolescents. The protocol provides detailed guidelines for responding to the immediate needs of sexual assault patients. The protocol was authorized by VAWA’s 2000 reauthorization and first published in 2004. The protocol has the same emphasis and values as the previous versions, but it is updated to reflect current technology, science, and standards of practice. For this revision, OVW solicited input from experts in relevant disciplines, including physicians, forensic nurses, prosecutors, law enforcement, victim advocates, civil attorneys, forensic scientists, and experts in culturally specific and underserved populations.

“As a young staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee thirty years ago, I was privileged to play a small part in the passage of the original Violence Against Women Act, which profoundly changed how our country protects survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “Today, with the largest funding level ever, VAWA’s programs are providing more access to services for survivors, more resources to help law enforcement respond, and more capacity to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. On this milestone anniversary, the legacy of the Violence Against Women Act lives in the courage, stories, and voices of victims and survivors who made the original law possible. And it’s in the future work by all of us to shape a safer world for women everywhere.”

OVW also published a new report, Answering the Call: Thirty Years of the Violence Against Women Act, that chronicles the impact of VAWA grant funding. It uses research findings, numbers, archival material, and grantees’ and survivors’ own words to present snapshots of the ways VAWA transforms communities’ efforts to support survivors, hold offenders accountable, and work collaboratively to end domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking.

“Thanks to VAWA and its expansion over the last 30 years, we’ve pursued additional pathways to justice, acknowledging that access to justice looks different for each survivor,” said Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Mizer. “I’m proud to say that this year OVW launched three new grant solicitations to implement the new restorative practices pilot program included in the 2022 VAWA reauthorization, including funding for pilot sites, national training and technical assistance, and a robust evaluation program. OVW will be awarding more than $29 million to support restorative practice programs that will expand access to justice for survivors.”

In addition to the OVW resources released today, the Department joined the Departments of Agriculture, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development to issue an interagency statement that affirms VAWA’s housing protections for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking as well as other individuals, such as those who assist survivors. 

“A coordinated community response is just as important at the federal level as it is within a community,” said OVW Director Rosie Hidalgo. “Too often, an individual facing violence feels forced to remain at home with their abuser because they don’t have anywhere else to go. By providing housing security, we can help support survivors and give them a pathway to safety. We’re grateful to our federal partners as we work together toward our common goal of ending gender-based violence and providing safety, security, and justice.”

OVW provides leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to reduce violence through the implementation of the Violence Against Women Act and subsequent legislation. Created in 1995, OVW administers financial and technical assistance to communities across the country that are developing programs, policies, and practices aimed at ending domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. In addition to overseeing federal grant programs, OVW undertakes initiatives in response to special needs identified by communities facing acute challenges. Learn more at www.justice.gov/ovw.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A former Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) correctional officer pleaded guilty today to three counts of sexual abuse of a ward.

Jacob Salcido, 40, of Lexington, Kentucky, pleaded guilty today to sexual abuse of a ward. According to his plea agreement, beginning on Sept. 5, 2020, through Dec. 21, 2020, while employed as a correctional officer at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) in Lexington, Salcido knowingly engaged in a sexual act with three inmates. Salcido admitted that he was aware that based on his training and experience that any sexual contact between FMC staff and inmates was strictly forbidden and was a federal crime.

“Jacob Salcido blatantly exploited his power as a correctional officer by sexually abusing three women in his custody,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “The Justice Department’s commitment to eradicating sexual abuse within the ranks of the Federal Bureau of Prisons continues through every case we prosecute. Today’s guilty plea is the latest but certainly not the last in our efforts to eradicate sexual abuse in federal prisons.”

“Federal Bureau of Prisons Correctional Officers are responsible for fostering a safe and humane environment for inmates to serve out their sentences,” said Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz. “Instead, Salcido abused his authority and sexually abused three inmates that were in his custody and care. The DOJ OIG is committed to aggressively investigating these types of allegations and bringing perpetrators to justice.”

“Instead of ensuring the safety and security of those in his care, the defendant chose to maliciously prey on vulnerable individuals, and betrayed an important obligation to the public,” said U.S. Attorney Carlton S. Shier IV for the Eastern District of Kentucky. “This disgraceful conduct has done enduring damage to his victims. It has also eroded trust in faithful public servants, those who perform their civic duties honorably. We are committed to our efforts to protect individuals, and to combat abuses by those who callously betray their responsibilities to those in their care and to the public they serve.”

Salcido is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 13.

Salcido faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

DOJ-OIG and the FBI investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Zach Dembo for the Eastern District of Kentucky is prosecuting the case.

FBOP is committed to rooting out misconduct within its ranks and working with law enforcement partners to prosecute violations of federal law. The numerous FBOP employees working diligently to ensure justice for the victims of misconduct are critical to the department’s reform efforts.