Category: Justice

• No. 5:25-CR-00515 (Southern District of Texas)
• AUSA Bryan Oliver

On May 8, 2025, prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging Jocelyn Castilleja with smuggling (18 U.S.C. § 545).

On June 15, 2024, Castilleja attempted to smuggle three 25pound containers of 410A hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant from Mexico into the United States in her personal vehicle. The refrigerants were discovered during a routine inspection by Customs and Border Protection agents at the Brownsville, Texas, border crossing. Castilleja failed to declare the containers to customs authorities, as required by law.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation.

• No. 3:25-mj-02712 (Southern District of California)
• AUSA Parker Gardner-Erickson

On May 20, 2025, prosecutors charged Ricardo Alonzo with smuggling 17 exotic birds into the United States from Mexico under the seat of his car (18 U.S.C. § 545).

On May 4, 2025, authorities intercepted Alonzo as he drove over the border from Mexico at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. Officers found four bags containing 10 burrowing parakeets, five yellow-crowned Amazon parrots, and two red-lored Amazon parrot chicks under the rear seat. The two red-lored Amazon parrot chicks did not survive; the remaining birds were transferred to a quarantine facility managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Amazon parrots are native to Mexico, the West Indies, and northern South America, while burrowing parakeets are native to Chile and Argentina. All species of Amazon parrots, as well as burrowing parakeets, are listed on either Appendix I or Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.

Smuggled birds that are not subject to quarantine can prove dangerous as they may carry and spread Avian influenza (bird flu) and other diseases. Bird flu is highly contagious and can cause flu-like symptoms, respiratory illness, pneumonia, and death in humans and other birds including those housed on poultry farms.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation.

Red-lored Amazon parrots rescued by border officials.

• No. 1:23-CR-00787 (District of New Jersey)
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Ethan Eddy
• AUSA Michelle Goldman

On May 16, 2025, Tommy Watson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess, train, and transport dogs for an animal fighting venture, sponsoring and exhibiting dogs in an animal fighting venture, and being a felon-in-possession of ammunition (7 U.S.C. §§ 2156(a)(1), 2156(b); 18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 922(g)). Watson is scheduled for sentencing on October 2, 2025.

The case began when officers responded to an emergency call at an auto body garage in Upper Deerfield Township, New Jersey. They found a fighting pit in the garage, along with two pit bull-type dogs, still fighting, that had been placed into an inoperable car on a lift in the garage as the participants fled on foot. The dogs later died from injuries they sustained while fighting. Officers also found an uninjured pit bull-type dog in a car near the garage, along with a rudimentary veterinary suture and skin staple kit.

Evidence revealed that Watson organized the fight, and that his dog was scheduled for the next fight on deck. He jointly possessed and trained the dog for this particular fight, as shown by cell phone video evidence. Watson participated in a dog fighting operation called “From Da Bottom Kennels.” From Da Bottom Kennels and others live-streamed dog fight videos from the garage via the Telegram app.

Co-defendant Johnnie Lee Nelson was sentenced in April 2025 to complete a two-year term of probation to include one year of home confinement. Nelson will also perform 100 hours of community service.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation.

• No. 3:24-CR-00136 (Northern District of Texas)
• AUSA Doug Brasher

On May 22, 2025, Phillip Waddell pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act (CAA) (18 U.S.C. § 371; 42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(2)(C)).

Waddell is one of ten defendants charged for tampering with pollution control equipment software in diesel trucks. The other co-defendants are Philip Matthew Ormand, Kolby Douglas Huneycutt, Kyle Kris Kizer, Jonathan Joseph Lohrmeyer, Justin Loutoyama Pasamonte, Archie George Sims, and Adam Marsh Stanley, along with auto dealership James Hodge Motors, Inc. (doing business as Jay Hodge Dodge), and its Chief Operating Officer Curtis Kevin Poore. They are scheduled for trial to begin on December 15, 2025.

Between June 2019 and November 2021, Waddell sold aftermarket diesel exhaust components, tuners, and so-called “delete tunes” that allowed vehicles to override on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems. Operating normally, OBDs monitor vehicle emissions to ensure they fall below the limits set by the CAA. When an OBD detects excess emissions, it sends input to the vehicle’s on-board computer, which may activate an indicator light and place the vehicle in “limp mode,” capping its speed as low as five miles per hour. With delete tunes installed, diesel exhaust systems can be modified so that OBDs are prevented from detecting emission changes.

Waddell purchased delete tunes from Ormand to customize them for specific vehicles. From August 2018 to April 2021, Waddell paid Ormand more than $2 million for delete tunes and sold them for between $300 and $1,350 each. Waddell’s customers included James Hodge Motors and several individuals who operated their own diesel repair and customization businesses.

Huneycutt, Kizer, Lohrmeyer, Pasamonte, Sims, and Stanley purchased tuners and delete tunes from Waddell and installed them on their customers’ vehicles, a process called “tuning” or “reflashing.” James Hodge Motors, acting under Poore’s supervision, falsified invoices to conceal the nature of the work it performed on customers’ trucks.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation, with assistance from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. 

• No. 3:22-CR-00036 (Southern District of Mississippi)
• ECS Senior Litigation Counsel Todd Gleason
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Matt Morris
• ECS Paralegal Chloe Harris
• ECS Paralegal Jonah Fruchtman

On May 1, 2025, a court sentenced Thomas W. Douglas, Jr., to pay a $50,000 fine and complete a three-year term of probation, which includes nine months’ home confinement. Co-defendant John S. Welch, Sr., was sentenced to pay a $5,000 fine and complete a two-year term of probation. Following an almost two-week trial, a jury found Douglas guilty of two negligent Clean Water Act (CWA) counts and Welch guilty of one negligent CWA count (33 U.S.C. § 1319(c)(1)(A)).

Douglas was the president and co-owner of Gold Coast Commodities, Inc. (GCC), based in Brandon, Mississippi, and Welch was GCC’s plant manager. The company processes fats, oils, and grease into feedstock for animal food and biofuels. GCC applied for and received pretreatment permits that limited the quantity of treated waste it could discharge to the Jackson area wastewater treatment system (JWTS). GCC never activated the permits, claiming that it trucked all its waste offsite for treatment and disposal. State and local regulatory officials later discovered discharges of industrial waste downstream from GCC that vastly exceeded numerous pollutant limits.

After officials placed monitors into GCC’s sewer outfall, the defendants trucked GCC’s process waste to three other illegal discharge locations, two of which led to the JWTS. They hired two sewage haulers to transport GCC’s industrial waste to JWTS’s treatment plant in tanker trucks falsely marked as “sewage” to conceal the nature of the waste. The plant does not accept industrial waste. When that became too risky, they hired a trucking company to transport GCC’s waste to a small sewer service company owned by co-defendant Andrew Walker. There they excavated a JWTS sewer pipe and discharged another 3.4 million gallons of GCC’s industrial waste until they were again caught and ordered to stop.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Brandon Police Department, and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality conducted the investigation, with assistance from the Cities of Brandon and Jackson municipal governments.

• No. 1:22-CR-00154 (Eastern District of Virginia)
• AUSA Gordon D. Kromberg
• AUSA Vanessa K. Strobbe

On May 6, 2025, a court sentenced Charles Reginald McDougald to 27 months’ incarceration followed by three years of supervised release.

From March 2015 through December 2022, McDougald, aka “Luke” and “Bottom Boy—along with other conspirators from Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and North Carolina—used a messaging app private group referred to as “The DMV Board” or “The Board,” to discuss training fighting dogs, exchange videos about dog fighting, and arrange and coordinate dog fights.

Members of the DMV Board used the app to compare methods of killing dogs that lost fights, circulate media reports about conspirators who had been caught by law enforcement, and discuss ways to avoid being caught. McDougald posted multiple offers to arrange dog fights for thousands of dollars per fight. McDougald pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to violating the animal fighting venture statute (7 U.S.C. § 2156; 18 U.S.C. §§ 49, 371).

McDougald’s sentencing follows the convictions of 19 others who used the DMV Board. Those other defendants received sentences ranging between 10 days and 30 months in prison.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Defense Criminal Investigation Service, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation.

• No. 2:24-CR-00125 (District of Maine)
• AUSA David Joyce
• AUSA John Osborn

On May 7, 2025, a court sentenced Isaac Allen to pay a $40,000 fine and complete a three-year term of probation. Allen, the owner of a diesel repair shop called Red Barn Diesel Performance in Windham, Maine, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to tamper with Clean Air Act (CAA) monitoring devices and obstructing an agency proceeding (18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 1505; 42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(2)(C)).

Between January 2017 and September 2020, Allen conspired with a local truck sales business to reprogram the on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems of diesel trucks by downloading software, or “tunes,” which disabled the systems’ ability to detect emissions control malfunctions. Disabling emissions controls or tampering with the OBD system of a diesel truck causes its emissions to increase significantly.

In June 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued Allen a CAA Information Request, seeking details on the vehicles serviced by Red Barn, including the impact of the engine tunes on emissions systems and OBD functions. Allen underreported the number of vehicles affected.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation with support from the Maine State Police.

• No. 5:25-CR-00002 (Eastern District of Kentucky)
• AUSA Emily Greenfield

On May 12, 2025, a court sentenced Kendall Glenn Hacker to 30 months’ incarceration, followed by three years’ supervised release. Hacker pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to violating the Animal Crush statute (18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 48(a)(2), (a)(3)).

Between November 2021 and June 2022, Hacker sent money through online payment applications, such as PayPal and Venmo, to Michael Macartney, an online chat group administrator. The participants in this group funded, created, obtained, received, exchanged and/or distributed animal crush videos.

Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation.

• No. 3:24-CR-00047 (District of Alaska)
• AUSA Seth Brickey

On May 13, 2025, a court sentenced fisherman Corey Potter to 12 months’ incarceration followed by two years of supervised release for illegally transporting crab from Alaska to Washington in violation of the Lacey Act (16 U.S.C. §§ 3372(a)(2)(A), 3373(d)(1)(B)). Potter also is banned from commercial fishing while under supervision.

In February and March 2024, Corey Potter owned and operated two crab catcher vessels and harvested Tanner and golden king crab in Southeast Alaska waters. The vessels were captained and operated by co-defendants Kyle Potter (Corey’s son) and Justin Welch. Corey Potter directed Kyle Potter and Welch to transport their harvest of live crab to Seattle, Washington, where they intended to sell it for a higher price than they would receive in Alaska. Before leaving Alaska, neither vessel landed their harvest at a port nor reported the harvest on a fish ticket, which all three defendants knew was required under state law.

At the time, one vessel held more than 4,200 pounds of live Tanner crab aboard, while the other had close to 3,000 pounds of live golden king crab. A portion of the Tanner crab was infected with Bitter Crab Syndrome (BCS), a parasitic disease that is fatal to crustaceans. Several crab fishermen who knew about their plans contacted Corey and Kyle Potter expressing concern that the Potters’ harvest would infect other crabs with BCS. Despite the other fishermen’s concerns, Corey Potter moved forward with his plan to transport the catch.

Following the multi-day trip from Alaska, roughly 40 percent the king crab died and was unmarketable. Since the other vessel had BCS-contaminated crabs, the entire catch of Tanner crab was transferred to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to dispose of in a landfill.

In March 2024, law enforcement served a search warrant on Welch and one of the fishing vessels. Welch told Corey and Kyle Potter about the search, and both deleted text messages before law enforcement could seize their phones. Those messages described their awareness of BCS and their plans to sell the crab for better prices.

Kyle Potter was previously sentenced to pay a $20,000 fine and complete a five-year term of probation. Welch was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and complete a three-year term of probation.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation.

• No. 1:24-CR-00005 (Middle District of Georgia)
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Ethan Eddy
• ECS Trial Attorney Leigh Rende
• AUSA Leah McEwen
• ECS Law Clerk Amanda Backer

On May 13 and 14, 2025, the court sentenced the final 11 defendants in this case arising from a large-scale dog fighting event in 2022. All defendants were ordered to pay restitution to the U.S. Marshals Service for the costs of caring for the seized animals.

• Donnametric Miller was sentenced to 100 months’ incarceration followed by three years of supervised release. Miller will pay $17,129 in restitution.
• Fredricus White will serve 35 months’ incarceration followed by two years of supervised release. White will pay $13,307 in restitution.
• Christopher Travis Beaumont was sentenced to 30 months’ incarceration followed by three years of supervised release. Beaumont will pay $17,993 in restitution.
• Cornelious Johnson will serve 27 months’ incarceration followed by two years of supervised release. Johnson will pay $13,307 in restitution.
• Terelle Ganzy was sentenced to 24 months’ incarceration followed by two years of supervised release. Ganzy will pay $13,307 in restitution.
• Terrance Davis was sentenced to 20 months’ incarceration followed by two years of supervised release. Davis will pay $16,424 in restitution.
• Tamichael Elijah was sentenced to 18 months’ incarceration followed by two years of supervised release. Elijah will pay $50,279 in restitution.
• Rodrecus Kimble will complete a three-year term of probation to include one year of home detention. Kimble will pay $17,895 in restitution.
• Timothy Freeman was sentenced to time served and one year of supervised release. Freeman will pay $16,929 in restitution.
• Herman Buggs, Jr., was sentenced to time served and two years of supervised release. Buggs will pay $16,688 in restitution.
• Gary Hopkins will complete a two-year term of probation and pay $16,648 in restitution.

The final two defendants, Brandon Baker and Marvin Pulley, III, are scheduled for sentencing on June 4 and 5, 2025, respectively. Defendant Willie Russell was previously sentenced to 24 months’ incarceration followed by three years’ supervised release, after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and exhibiting dogs in an animal fighting venture (7 U.S.C. § 2156(a)(1); 18 U.S.C. § 371).

On April 24, 2022, the defendants held a dog fighting event in Donalsonville, Georgia, that authorities disrupted while in progress. The defendants brought 24 pit bull-type dogs to fight in a series of matches over that weekend.

The participants used their cars to store dogs that fought previously, as well as those awaiting their turn in the fighting pit. Dogs found in cars bore recent injuries and scars. Additional dogs were kept on chains on the property. Law enforcement rescued 27 dogs, including a badly injured dog that later died from its injuries.

All defendants but Freeman pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the animal fighting prohibition of the federal Animal Welfare Act. Beaumont and Miller also pleaded guilty to sponsoring or exhibiting a dog in a dog fight. Baker, Davis, Ganzy, Johnson, Pulley, and White further pleaded guilty to possessing and transporting a dog to use in an animal fighting venture. Freeman pleaded guilty to spectating at an animal fight. Miller and Pulley also pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm by a person with a prior felony conviction.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of the Inspector General and the Seminole County, Georgia, Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation, with assistance from the Bay County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office.

• No. 3:23-CR-02377 (Southern District of California)
• ECS Assistant Chief Stephen DaPonte
• AUSA Elizabet Brown

On May 14, 2025, a court sentenced Ruben Montes to 16 months’ incarceration followed by two years of supervised release. Montes will pay $12,710 in forfeiture for his part in a scheme to smuggle and distribute more than $3 million worth of Mexican pesticides and veterinary drugs that are not approved for use in the United States (18 U.S.C. § 371).

Since 2020, Montes coordinated the smuggling of pesticides and veterinary drugs from Mexico into the United States. The primary pesticides involved were Taktic and Bovitraz, which are not registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use in the United States. The smuggled veterinary drugs included Tylocet, Terramicina, Tetragent Ares, and Catarrol, which are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Montes requested that his co-conspirators bring these pesticides and veterinary drugs from Mexico into the United States. They then hid the pesticides and veterinary drugs in storage units in Calexico and retrieved them for distribution throughout the United States. Montes and Hugo Gutierrez (who remains at large) supplied most of the pesticides and veterinary drugs to individuals charged in another case, United States v. Toledo, et al., No. 22-CR-01965, (S.D. Calif.). Montes was also involved in shipping about 150 packages of unapproved products to another co-conspirator in Texas.

According to the EPA, the active ingredient in Taktic and Bovitraz is amitraz, which is toxic to bees if released into hives, and then ultimately to humans when it ends up in honey, honeycomb, and beeswax. Misuse of amitraz-containing products in beehives can therefore result in exposures that could cause neurological effects and possibly reproductive effects in humans.

Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations, and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control conducted the investigation.

• No. 2:22-CR-00139 (Eastern District of Virginia)
• AUSA Joseph Kosky

On May 16, 2025, a court sentenced Jonathan Long to pay a $88,514 fine and complete a 12-month term of probation to include three months of home confinement. Long pleaded guilty to being an accessory after-the-fact to falsifying, tampering with, and rendering inaccurate a monitoring device required by the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(2)(C); 18 U.S.C. § 3).

Long owned and operated Open Wide Performance, LLC, which sold aftermarket defeat devices for diesel trucks. Long works as a diesel technician and is an active-duty member of the U.S. Navy, stationed in Norfolk, Virginia.

Between 2019 and 2020, Long sold “delete kits,” including delete pipes, software, cables, and tunes. Long also helped his customers use this equipment to manipulate their diesel trucks’ onboard diagnostic system. Long earned approximately $300,000 from this criminal enterprise.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation.

• No. 5:25-CR-00011 (Northern District of Florida)
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Patrick Duggan
• AUSA Joseph Ravelo

On May 21, 2025, a court sentenced Zachary Brandon Barfield to 30 days’ incarceration followed by one year of supervised release. Barfield also will pay a $51,000 fine. Barfield pleaded guilty to three counts of poisoning and shooting dolphins in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (16 U.S.C. §§ 1372(a)(2)(A), 1375(b); 7 U.S.C. §§ 136j(a)(2)(G), 136l(b)(2)).

Barfield is a charter and commercial fishing captain operating out of Panama City, Florida. In the summer of 2022, Barfield became frustrated with dolphins eating red snapper from the lines of charter fishing clients. Between June and August 2022, Barfield began placing a commercial methomyl insecticide inside bait fish to feed to and poison the dolphins that surfaced near his boat.

While captaining another fishing trip in December 2022, Barfield saw dolphins eating snapper from fishing lines. This time, he used a 12-gauge shotgun to shoot and kill a dolphin that surfaced near his vessel. In the summer of 2023, while on a charter fishing trip, Barfield shot at a dolphin that surfaced near his clients’ fishing lines.

The National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation with assistance from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

• No. 1:25-CR-20007 (Southern District of Florida)
• AUSA Tom Watts-FitzGerald

On May 23, 2025, a court sentenced Liza Hash to complete a one-year term of probation to include 60 days of home confinement. Hash also will pay a $5,000 fine. She pleaded guilty to discharging oil into United States and contiguous zone waters, in violating of the Clean Water Act (CWA) (33 U.S.C. §§ 1319(c)(2), 1321(b)(3)).

Hash was the owner and operator of the S/V Juliet, a sailing vessel used for multi-day scuba diving trips between Miami and the Bahamas. Over the course of about six years, Hash’s vessel carried up to 12 passengers per trip, along with the crew, between the U.S. and the Bahamas.

On June 16, 2023, U.S. Coast Guard investigators boarded the Juliet following its return from the Bahamas. After noticing an active oil sheen originating from the vessel, they conducted a safety examination.

During the inspection, they noted oily water in the bilge, and a pump connected to the vessel’s grey water tank, to facilitate illegal overboard discharges. Hash had used the vessel’s grey water tank (which is intended to hold liquid waste from the boat’s washer, dryer, sinks, and showers) to store oil-contaminated bilge water and discharge it overboard.

Investigators estimate that Hash discharged approximately 26,000 gallons of oily water during the five-year period.

The United States Coast Guard conducted the investigation.