A Michigan plating company called Electro-Plating Services Inc. (EPS) has been sentenced in federal court to five years of probation and was ordered to pay $1,449,963.94 to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to properly store hazardous waste. The company’s owner, Gary Sayers, was sentenced to one year in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced the conclusion of a significant law enforcement operation in Brazil that has led to U.S. indictments for criminal human smuggling. The targeted smugglers are alleged to have smuggled individuals from South Asia and elsewhere into Brazil and ultimately to the U.S.

Chandra Yarlagadda owned and operated Alpha Bioenergy LLC (Alpha), formerly known as Naturol Bioenergy LLC, which purchased and sold biodiesel fuel. Yarlagadda has pled guilty to violating tax laws in order to avoid paying an additional $2.3 million in federal income taxes.

Jong Woo Son, a South Korean national, was indicted by a federal grand jury this week for his involvement with Welcome To Video, the largest child sexual exploitation market by volume of content. Son is the international actor among hundreds of domestic perpetrators indicted on charges relating to the website’s use.

A grand jury has convicted three leaders of the national criminal organization, Gangster Disciples. The convicted offenses include racketeering conspiracy (RICO) involving murder, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, drug trafficking conspiracy, and other crimes.

Actions taken in several states have uncovered millions of dollars of health care fraud spanning at least five states. In two Department of Justice (DOJ) releases, DOJ attorneys outline charges against 120 individuals.

A Colombian cartel leader was sentenced to 27 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release in the Southern District of Florida for bribing a former special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) team. The cocaine trafficker, Jose Bayron Piedrahita-Ceballos, bribed the ICE-HSI official to dismiss a drug trafficking indictment against him.

A federal grand jury in the Western District of Virginia returned a sealed indictment on September 11 charging a Florida man with making racially motivated threats against a prospective candidate for a local city council position in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) field office in Tampa, Florida.

Three individuals, including officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), have been indicted and arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit bribery of public officials; acts affecting a personal financial interest; false statements; disaster fraud; honest services wire fraud, Travel Act violations, and wire fraud. The arrests came as a result of a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation.

Upon arrival at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, Milon Miah was arrested for conspiring to smuggle individuals into the United States. Miah allegedly conspired to bring and brought 15 Bangladeshi nationals to the U.S. in exchange for payment.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Health Care Fraud Unit of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section (HCF Unit) executed 36 search warrants, including 15 pharmacies and six “pill mill” clinics, as well as other offices and residences, aimed at disrupting networks of opioid distribution. The DEA also served immediate suspension orders on seven pharmacies and two providers involved in dispensing controlled substances without legitimate medical purpose. In total, 41 individuals have been charged in nine indictments.

American Airlines has agreed to settle a False Claims Act allegation stating that the airline falsely reported the times it delivered certain packages. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Postal Service investigated the matter alongside the Postal Service Office of General Counsel. American Airlines paid $22 million to settle the matter.

A Colombian national has been arrested in Colombia and sent to the United States to serve his sentence for robbery. Oscar Javier Rodriguez Roa of Bogota pled guilty to his involvement in a South American theft ring targeting traveling jewelry salesmen in the U.S. and around the world.

The former Sheriff of Philadelphia John Green was sentenced last week to serve five years in prison followed by one year of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $76,581. Green accepted several hidden personal benefits from a co-defendant in exchange for providing the co-defendant with millions of dollars of business through the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrested a Chinese national living in the U.S. on a student visa for his role in trafficking counterfeit Apple products from China to the U.S. These products included phony iPhones and iPads.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has released the grand jury indictment of a Florida couple who engaged in a large-scale conspiracy to traffic protected wildlife. The indictment charges the couple with smuggling wildlife from Indonesia to the U.S. and reselling the wildlife from their Florida home.

On July 16, 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Operation SOS to reduce the supply of deadly synthetic opioids in high impact areas. One year later, the department has reported on the progress of the program so far.

The last of 12 defendants have been sentenced this week for their role in a multi-state dog fighting conspiracy. These sentences mark the end of Operation Grand Champion, a multi-jurisdictional federal dog fighting investigation which began in 2015 and resulted in 12 convictions.

A doctor operating in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania was charged in an indictment unsealed this week in an alleged scheme to received bribes and kickbacks from a pharmaceutical company in exchange for prescribing large volumes of a powerful fentanyl narcotic. Kenneth Sun, M.D., 58, of Easton, Pennsylvania, was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive health care kickbacks and four counts of receiving health care kickbacks.

An undercover investigation led by the US Fish and Wildlife service has resulted in the arrest of Wayne Martin, a New Mexico man who violated the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by killing multiple birds. Martin pled guilty to the crimes in 2017 and was sentenced this week by the Department of Justice (DOJ).