On April 1, 2025, seven individuals in Georgia and Mexico were indicted by a federal grand jury seated in the Northern District of Georgia related to a drug trafficking and money laundering ring tied to a Mexico-based trafficker. Five of these defendants, all of Norcross, Georgia – Sandra Beatriz Hernandez Chilel, age 49, Karina Beatriz Perez Hernandez, age 22, David Miranda Vinalay, age 39, Jerome Lewis, age 47, and Irving Joel Hernandez, age 34 – were arrested earlier today, on April 15, 2025, in a coordinated effort by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, and local law enforcement. The defendants were arraigned before a United States Magistrate Judge following their arrests.
On April 1, seven individuals in Georgia and Mexico were indicted by a federal grand jury seated in the Northern District of Georgia related to a drug trafficking and money laundering ring tied to a Mexico-based trafficker. Five of these defendants, all of Norcross, Georgia — Sandra Beatriz Hernandez Chilel, 49; Karina Beatriz Perez Hernandez, 22; David Miranda Vinalay, 39; Jerome Lewis, 47; and Irving Joel Hernandez, 34 — were arrested earlier today in a coordinated effort by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and local law enforcement. The defendants were arraigned before a U.S. Magistrate Judge following their arrests.
Aliakbar Mohammad Amin has been arrested and charged pursuant to a criminal complaint with transmitting interstate threats to injure Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and her family.
A federal district judge in Miami sentenced a Cuban national to 18 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, after he previously pleaded guilty to alien smuggling in January.
Today, a federal district judge in Miami sentenced a 25-year-old woman who was in the country unlawfully to seven-and-a-half years in prison for her role in a for-profit scheme to illegally smuggle 18 Cubans by boat from the island, across the Florida straits, and into the United States. Sixteen people died during the trip.
Clifford Frederic Lind, 40, pleaded guilty in federal court this week to attempting to transfer obscene material to a minor and attempting to entice a minor. Lind, who used the online alias “it is what it is,” admitted to engaging in sexually explicit communications with someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl.
A 21-year-old Miami man who used social media messaging to threaten to “kill everyone” attending a high school junior prom in New Jersey pled guilty this week to transmitting threats through interstate communications, a felony offense.
A Florida man was sentenced today to 18 months in prison, two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $4,381,265.76 in restitution to the United States for willfully failing to pay over employment taxes and willfully failing to file individual income tax returns.