Three Men Sentenced to Prison for Participation in Online Conspiracy to Trade Child Pornography

WASHINGTON – Two Wisconsin men and a Missouri man were sentenced to prison for their role in a conspiracy to advertise, distribute and possess child pornography, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Anne M. Tompkins announced today.

Daniel Slott, 44, of Merrill, Wis., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Richard L. Voorhees in the Western District of North Carolina to serve 228 months in prison and lifetime supervised release.
Brian Slott, 42, of Merrill, was sentenced today Judge Voorhees to serve 180 months in prison and lifetime supervised release.

Henry Wright, 50, of Jefferson County, Mo., was sentenced yesterday by Judge Voorhees to serve 70 months in prison and 10 years of supervised release.

Following their release, all three co-conspirators must register as sex offenders.

In November 2010, a grand jury charged six individuals, including Brian Slott, Daniel Slott and Wright, with conspiracy to advertise, distribute and possess child pornography.  All three pleaded guilty to the charges in July 2011.

According to filed court documents and court proceedings, Brian Slott, Daniel Slott and Wright engaged in a conspiracy with others to share child pornography on Facebook.  Court records indicate that all three were members of several Facebook groups dedicated to sharing child pornography and child erotica, including groups called “girls girls girls :)” and “little girls love to play to :).”  These groups contained over 10,000 images of child pornography and child erotica.  According to filed documents and statements made in court, Wright engaged in chats with the group leader and commented on images of prepubescent children posted to the Facebook groups.  Daniel Slott, a registered sex offender, traveled to his brother’s house to participate in the groups and download images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  Brian Slott also downloaded images from the groups’ sites.  In August 2010, agents with the FBI executed a search warrant at Daniel Slott, Brian Slott and Henry Wright’s residences and seized multiple computers and storage media devices.  Hundreds of images of child pornography were located on these items.

Three co-conspirators were sentenced earlier this fall: James Byrd was sentenced in August 2012 to serve 87 months in prison; David Large was sentenced in October 2012 to 70 months in prison; and Michael Engelking was sentenced in October 2012 to serve 210 months in prison.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children Unit headquartered in Maryland.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cortney S. Escaravage of the Western District of North Carolina and Trial Attorney LisaMarie Freitas of CEOS.

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Texas Man Sentenced in Indiana to 330 Months in Prison for Participating in International Child Pornography Distribution Ring

WASHINGTON – A Texas man was sentenced today to serve 330 months in prison for his participation in an international child pornography distribution ring, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Hogsett of the Southern District of Indiana.

Jeremy Daniel Labrec, 22, of Lubbock, Texas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson in the Southern District of Indiana.  In addition to his prison term, Labrec was sentenced to serve lifetime supervised release.

Labrec’s prosecution is the result of “Operation Bulldog,” a multi-jurisdictional effort to dismantle and prosecute the members of an international child pornography distribution ring.  The ring was discovered in the course of investigating the production and distribution of child pornography by David Bostic, a Bloomington, Ind., man, who pleaded guilty to multiple charges in June 2011 and was sentenced in November 2011 to serve 315 years in prison.  A total of nine defendants have been prosecuted in the Southern District of Indiana for their participation in the group, and all nine defendants have been sentenced to prison.

On June 6, 2012, Labrec pleaded guilty to 22 counts charging he sexually exploited children, distributed and received child pornography and conspired to commit these offenses.

Labrec was charged by indictment in February 2011, and he was arrested in March 2011.  According to court documents, during the course of the investigation, law enforcement discovered that, in addition to his child pornography trafficking activities, Labrec had sexual contact with six young boys, all of whom were five years of age or younger.

 A total of more than two dozen children have now been rescued as a result of Operation Bulldog.  Efforts to identify additional defendants and victims in the United States and abroad are active and ongoing.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

This case was investigated by the FBI, with local assistance from the Indiana State Police, the Kokomo, Ind., Police Department and the Brownsburg, Ind., Police Department.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Brant Cook of the Southern District of Indiana and Trial Attorney Michael Grant of CEOS.

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Foreign National Pleads Guilty in Houston to Human Smuggling Charges

WASHINGTON – A foreign national pleaded guilty today for his role in a scheme to smuggle undocumented immigrants from India into the United States, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson for the Southern District of Texas; and Special Agent in Charge Brian M. Moskowitz of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) in Houston

Kaushik Jayantibhai Thakkar, 33, an Indian national, pleaded guilty today at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr., in Houston, to one count of conspiracy to bring undocumented immigrants into the United States for profit and to one count of unlawfully bringing two undocumented immigrants into the United States for profit.

Thakkar was arrested in New York on April 8, 2012, on a complaint filed in the Southern District of Texas charging him with one count of conspiracy to unlawfully smuggle undocumented immigrants into the United States.  On June 6, 2012, Thakkar was charged by superseding indictment, along with four other individuals, with one count of conspiracy to smuggle undocumented immigrants into the United States and six human smuggling counts related to three incidents in which Thakkar helped smuggle undocumented immigrants into the United States.  Based on Thakkar’s guilty plea, the government will dismiss the remaining human smuggling counts against him at sentencing.

At the plea hearing and in related court documents, Thakkar admitted that between January 2011 and April 2012, he conspired with his codefendants to bring undocumented immigrants to the United States, and to encourage and induce undocumented immigrants to come to the United States unlawfully.  According to court documents, Thakkar and his co-conspirators devised the scheme to profit financially.

In support of the conspiracy, Thakkar and other conspirators recruited individuals in India who were willing to pay to be smuggled into the United States.  For their smuggling operations, Thakkar and his conspirators used a network of conspirators in South America, Central America, the Caribbean and the United States, including the state of Texas.  Using this network, Thakkar and his conspirators transported groups of undocumented immigrants from locations within India through South America, Central America and the Caribbean and then into the United States by various means, including by air travel, automobiles, water craft and foot.  Many of these smuggling events, including five of the incidents described in the indictment, involved illegal entry into the United States via the border between the United States and Mexico near McAllen and Laredo, Texas.

At sentencing, which is scheduled for Feb. 22, 2013, Thakkar faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000.

Thakkar’s co-conspirator Maria Adela De Luna pleaded guilty on Nov. 9, 2012, to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented immigrants in the United States.  Co-conspirator Fabiano Augusto Amorim has been charged with one count of conspiracy to smuggle undocumented immigrants into the United States and 10 human smuggling counts related to five incidents in which Amorim allegedly helped smuggle undocumented immigrants into the United States.

The investigation was conducted by agents with ICE-HSI in McAllen and Houston.  This case is being prosecuted jointly by Trial Attorney Stephen Curran of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Leo J. Leo III and Casey MacDonald of the Southern District of Texas.

The investigation was 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.

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Jury Convicts Sioux City Man of Interstate Stalking and Using a Firearm During the Offense

A man who stalked his estranged wife and transported her from South Sioux City Nebraska to Sioux City, Iowa was convicted by a jury on November 30, 2012, after a 5– day trial in federal court in Sioux City.

Ralph Rogers, age, 24 from Sioux City, was convicted of interstate stalking and using a firearm during the offense. The verdict was returned following about seven hours of jury deliberations. On September 7, 2012, defendant pled guilty to two other crimes: (1) being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition and (2) failing appear after pre–trial release. The jury acquitted Rogers of the crimes of kidnaping and possession of a firearm in furtherance of the kidnaping.

Evidence presented at trial and plea hearing showed the following. On December 5, 2012, Rogers was tracking his estranged wife’s movements with a GPS application that he had secretly placed on her car while she was at work. When her car came to a stop at her new residence, Rogers armed himself with a hand gun, drove from Iowa to Nebraska, entered her home without permission, punched, kicked, and pistol–whipped one of the three people in the house at the time, and transported her to Roger’s home in Iowa.

Sentencing before United States District Court Judge Donald E. O’Brien will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Rogers remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Rogers faces a possible maximum sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment, a $650,000 fine, $300 in special assessments, and 3 years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 11–4022.

This case is being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a cooperative local, state, and federal program aimed at the enhanced prosecution of gun crimes. The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Dakota County, Nebraska, Sheriff’s Office, and the Sioux City, Iowa, Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Forde Fairchild.

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Tulare County Marijuana Cultivator Convicted

 FRESNO, Calif. — The third of nine defendants charged over the summer in connection with a large marijuana cultivation operation in Alpaugh, pleaded guilty plea today to participating in a drug conspiracy, U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

According to the plea agreement, Eliazar Castellanos–Gutierrez, 26, of Colima, Mexico, conspired to manufacture, distribute, and possess with intent to distribute marijuana. In pleading guilty, Castellanos acknowledged that he was found growing marijuana on a 20–acre parcel of agricultural land in the small farming community of Alpaugh in Tulare County. Castellanos admitted that he had paid $3,000 to the landowner, Saul Morales, 48, of Alpaugh, to grow 899 marijuana plants for purportedly medical use. Castellanos admitted that he never consulted with a doctor and is not sick. According to his plea agreement, he was "just using his medical marijuana recommendation to make money." Law enforcement officers seized 4,011 marijuana plants and several firearms from the property, which was owned and occupied by Saul Morales and his wife, Juliana Garcia–Torres, 54, who are also charged.

Castellanos is scheduled for sentencing before U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill on February 19, 2012. He is subject to deportation upon completion of any term of imprisonment that is imposed. Castellanos faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum of 40 years in prison, along with a $5 million fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory sentencing factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

Ezidoro Hurtado–Cerillos pleaded guilty on October 1, 2012; he is scheduled to be sentenced on December 17, 2012. The remaining co–defendants are scheduled for a status conference in federal court in Fresno on December 3, 2012. The allegations against them are only accusations and they are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This case is the product of an investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. It was initiated by the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department. The case is part of Operation Mercury, a six–county law enforcement initiative focusing on marijuana cultivation operations on agricultural land. Assistant United States Attorney Karen Escobar is prosecuting the case.

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U.S. Marshals Arrest Federal Fugitive from Alaska

Victims in underlying case included Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential candidate

Scranton, PA – United States Marshal Martin J. Pane announced today that the United States Marshals Service (USMS) arrested Shawn Christy, a 21-year old man, in McAdoo, Pennsylvania.

Christy was being sought on an arrest warrant issued by the United States District Court of Alaska on November 21, 2012, charging him with violation of federal probation.

On June 8, 2012, Christy was sentenced in federal court in Anchorage, Alaska to five (5) years of probation. He and his father Craig Christy had been previously charged with making harassing telephone calls to the law firm that represented Sarah Palin. These calls threatened Palin and her attorneys. In January 2012, both Christys pleaded guilty to the charges.

As a condition of the five (5) years of probation, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy M. Burgess ordered Shawn Christy to spend up to six (6) months in a community re-entry program at a Scranton residential facility.

Christy had his federal probation supervision transferred from the District of Alaska to the Middle District of Pennsylvania. In mid-July 2012, Christy entered the Catholic Social Services Residential Program. While residing at the Scranton Catholic Charity Center, it is alleged that Christy left without approval, was verbally abusive toward staff, and caused property damage at the facility.

Shortly after the issuance of the fugitive warrant on November 21, Marshals in Alaska sent an investigative lead to the USMS Fugitive Task Force in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Marshals based in Scranton developed information that the fugitive had returned to McAdoo.

During the morning hours of November 28, U.S. Marshals located Christy at a house in the 100 block of South Harrison Street in McAdoo. Upon identifying themselves, Christy fled the residence and was pursued by law enforcement. After a short foot chase, U.S. Marshals subdued the fugitive without any further incident. At the time of arrest, Christy was in possession of a knife. Christy was transported to the U.S. Courthouse in Scranton, where he appeared before United States Magistrate Judge Thomas Blewitt. Christy was ordered detained, pending his removal to the District of Alaska for further court proceedings on the federal probation violation warrant.

United States Marshal Martin J. Pane stated, “This case demonstrates the commitment of the U. S. Marshals Service to apprehend fugitives who fail to comply with their probation requirements.”

U.S. Marshals were assisted by personnel from the Lackawanna County Sheriff’s Office, a participating agency in its Middle District of Pennsylvania Fugitive Task Force.

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U.S. Marshals Arrest the 'Haggler Bandit' for Bank Robberies

Memphis, TN - The U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Task Force tracked a known gang member and suspected bank robber to his sister’s home and arrested him around noon today without incident.

Kevin McKinley, dubbed by FBI agents in California as the “Haggler Bandit,” is a suspect in five bank robberies that occurred during the week of Aug. 26, 2012, in the cities of Los Angles, Monrovia and Pasadena, Calif. The Pasadena Police and the U.S. Marshals Pacific South West Regional Fugitive Task Force working together developed information that the robberies were committed by McKinley, a known member of the Bloods street gang. Further information was gathered that McKinley was in the Memphis, Tenn., area.

The U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force was contacted at approximately 10 a.m. today. Using information provided by the U.S. Marshals Pacific South West Regional Fugitive Task Force, McKinley was tracked to his sister’s house and arrested. He was taken to the Shelby County Jail where he awaits extradition.

The U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force is a multi-agency task force with divisions in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. The Western Tennessee Division of the GCRFTF has offices in Memphis and Jackson, and its membership is primarily comprised of Deputy U.S. Marshals, Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputies, Madison County Sheriff’s Deputies, Jackson Police Officers, and the Tennessee Department of Corrections Special Agents. The primary mission of the Task Force is to arrest violent offenders and sexual predators.

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