U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Florida Maria Chapa Lopez and three members of her staff were among the 162 employees of the Department of Justice recognized June 15 at the 34th Director’s Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Chapa Lopez accepted the award for Superior Performance by a Litigative Team for her work while detailed to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. She and her colleagues investigated and prosecuted members of the Los Zetas cartel who murdered Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata and wounded ICE Special Agent Victor Avila in February 2011 during an attempted carjacking in Mexico.
Assigned immediately after the attack, the team soon began filing charges against the assailants. Over the next 6½ years, seven defendants were extradited to the U.S., five of whom pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the investigation.
In July 2017, the final two defendants were prosecuted and convicted.
Administrative Officer Jeff Hahn, Office Manager and IT Specialist Joey Chigro and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ilianys Rivera Miranda received the award for Superior Performance by an Administrative Team for their work in coordinating and implementing emergency response efforts to the District of Puerto Rico and the District of the Virgin Islands in the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Working with employees from the District of Puerto Rico and the Southern District of Florida, they analyzed policies to find the best ways to handle emergency relief efforts which could serve as best practices for other U.S. Attorney’s offices responding to similar emergencies.
U.S. District Judge Brian Davis on July 2 sentenced professional bodybuilder Donald McCloud Long, 51, of Jacksonville, to 18 months in federal prison for conspiracy to illegally distribute anabolic steroids.
Gregory Allen Baker, 30, also of Jacksonville, was sentenced to three years in federal prison for the same offense and for money laundering.
Long’s wife, 35-year-old Sarah Long, was sentenced to 42 months of probation, including 12 months of home confinement.
The investigation determined that from January 2015 through September 2017, the Longs distributed anabolic steroids and human growth hormone as part of their “Team Long” training regimen. The couple provided dosage directions and instruction to athletes on how to consume steroids and HGH to prepare for bodybuilding and other athletic competitions, according to court documents.
Baker was the primary source of supply for the drugs and imported raw anabolic steroids and HGH from China. He manufactured the steroids into consumable form, branded it “AxioLabs” and provided it to the Longs and others.
The court also ordered the Longs to forfeit $250,000, traceable proceeds of the offense. Baker was ordered to forfeit three motor vehicles, a motorcycle, an electric golf cart, jewelry and proceeds in the amount of $124,418. He also consented to forfeit $37,800 in additional proceeds.
The cases were part of “Operation Total Package,” led by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The investigation also involved U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the Jacksonville Beach Police Department, the Green Cove Springs Police Department, Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida has charged St. Augustine resident Kenneth B. Hanger, 46, with soliciting child pornography using the internet.
According to the criminal complaint, on May 22 a detective with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office reviewed sexual offender registration information provided by Hanger. The defendant disclosed use of a Facebook account that did not list his true name.
Posing as a minor child, the detective sent a “friend request” to the account, which was accepted by Hanger, who then made online contact with the “child.”
Between May 24 and June 5, Hanger engaged in online texting conversations after he was advised and acknowledged that the “child” was only 13 years old.
On June 1, Hanger raised the topic of sexual activity. Three days later, he sent a photo of his genitals and solicited the “child” to send him a graphic video depicting “her” genitals.
Hanger was arrested by St. Johns County police June 6 at his home in St. Augustine. He admitted during an interview that he had engaged in the conversations, had sent the photo and that he had stated his intention to engage in sex with the “child.”
Hanger was required to register as a sexual offender in 1994 after he was convicted of aggravated indecent assault in Bradford County, Pennsylvania.
Because of his prior sex offense conviction, Hanger faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years, and up to 50 years, in federal prison and a potential life term of supervision.
Ending an investigation that began three years ago, Joshua Ryne Goldberg, 23, of Orange Park, was sentenced June 25 by U.S. District Judge Brian Davis to 10 years in federal prison, to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for attempted malicious damage and destruction by an explosive of a building. He pleaded guilty on Dec. 20.
According to the plea agreement, in the summer of 2015, the FBI and law enforcement officers from Australia began investigating the online name “AusWitness” and determined that it was Goldberg.
He had come to the attention of law enforcement due in part to his social media postings concerning the May 3, 2015, attack by two gunmen at the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest in Garland, Texas.
Prior to the attack, Goldberg posted a map of the location of the contest and urged anyone in the area to attack the event. His posting was copied by gunman Elton Simpson, one of the two people killed during the attack. The FBI later located an online posting in which Goldberg took responsibility for inspiring the Garland attack, as well as two other planned attacks.
In July 2015, an FBI confidential human source began exchanging messages with Goldberg as “AusWitness” on social media. Between July and mid-August 2015, Goldberg discussed getting someone in Melbourne, Australia, to carry out a terrorist attack and to have the confidential source commit a bombing in the United States.
Goldberg sent website links to the source containing instructions for making an explosive device, including pipe bombs and other incendiary devices.
On Aug. 20, 2015, Goldberg stated that he was thinking of pipe bombs at a large public event and later said that a pressure-cooker bomb may be better. Later that month, Goldberg told the source that he had found the “perfect place” to target on Sept. 13, 2015, and sent a link to a Kansas City, Missouri, firefighter’s event that memorialized first responders that had been killed in the September 11 attacks.
On Aug. 27, 2015, Goldberg instructed the CHS to place the bomb near the crowd at the memorial event and to ensure it was very well hidden.
The following day, Goldberg provided the CHS with a list of items to use in the pressure- cooker bomb. He instructed the CHS to dip screws and other shrapnel in rat poison before putting them in the pressure- cooker bomb in order to inflict more casualties. A forensic analysis of the bomb-making information determined that it could have been used to make explosives that would cause property damage, personal injury and/or death.
This case was investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. The Jacksonville JTTF comprises the FBI, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida Highway Patrol, St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office and Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.