MIAMI–Former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina and his wife Raiza Villacis Robaina face charges for criminal tax fraud and making false statements to federal agents. The arrests resulted from an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Criminal Investigation Division. The indictment charges of [...]

BALTIMORE–A Jamaica man was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for murder in aid of racketeering. The victim, a drug courier, was kidnapped and dismembered in a bathtub. Hubert Downer aka Doc, 52, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles following an investigation by U.S. [...]

WASHINGTON–Indian national Kaushik Jayantibhai Thakkar and Brazilian national Fabiano Augusto Amorim were each sentenced Friday to serve 36 months in prison for their roles in smuggling undocumented migrants to the United States for private financial gain. Thakkar, 33, and Amorim, 28, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. in the Southern District of [...]

SACRAMENTO–Governor Jerry Brown released a revised and balanced state budget today that strengthens California’s fiscal integrity by investing in California’s schools, chipping away billions from the “Wall of Debt” and maintaining a prudent reserve. “This budget builds a solid foundation for California’s future by investing in our schools, continuing to pay down our debts and [...]

DETROIT–A Detroit-area physician pleaded guilty today to making fraudulent referrals for home health care as part of a $1.6 million home health care fraud scheme. Dr. Sonjai Poonpanij, 82, of Rochester, Mich., pleaded guilty before Senior U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow in the Eastern District of Michigan to one count of conspiracy to commit [...]

WASHINGTON–The remains of a serviceman, missing from the Vietnam War, was recently accounted for and will be buried along with the 12 other servicemen who were lost in the same crash, The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office said today. Marine Corps Pfc. Daniel A. Benedett of Seattle, Wash., will be buried May 15, at Arlington [...]

WASHINGTON–(PRWeb)–Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray launched a partnership with BrightFarms to build a 100,000 square-foot, state-of-the art greenhouse farm in Ward 8 designed to grow up to one million pounds of local produce per year. The greenhouse farm project – which also has the potential to create jobs for District residents – showcases the city’s position as a [...]

Yaoundé, CAMEROON–At least 26 elephants were massacred in the Dzanga Bai World Heritage Site in the Central African Republic, after 17 individuals armed with Kalashnikov rifles on Monday entered this unique elephant habitat, known locally as the “village of elephants”. WWF sources on Thursday said they had counted at least 26 elephant carcasses in and [...]

WASHINGTON–An alleged general of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang (ABT) pleaded guilty Friday to racketeering charges related to his membership in the ABT’s criminal enterprise. Charles Lee Roberts, aka “Jive,” 67, of Beaumont, Texas, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake in the Southern District of Texas to one count of conspiracy to [...]