DSS Special Agent Luis Orozco receives Task Force Officer of the Year award

Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Special Agent Luis Orozco received the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), “Los Angeles Task Force Officer of the Year” award. The award recognizes Orozco as one of the task force officers who made significant contributions to investigating crimes in partnership with HSI. The HSI Los Angeles Field Office made this announcement on August 24, 2021.

“Orozco was the only one to receive this award this year and among only a few DSS special agents ever selected for this and other HSI awards,” said DSS Special Agent in Charge Reed Beckmeyer, Los Angeles Field Office. “This award showcases his outstanding work and the DSS commitment to vigorously preventing U.S. passport and visa fraud.”

Orozco serves on the Los Angeles Field Office’s Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force (DBFTF). This multi-agency partnership, hosted and managed by HSI’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, combats document and benefit fraud. While serving on this task force, individuals from various agencies, each with their own expertise, come together to investigate potential crimes and pursue prosecution of transnational criminal networks responsible for unlawful exploitation of government systems and benefits.

As a DSS agent assigned to the DBFTF, Orozco participated in an investigation that identified bank accounts opened using foreign passports, violating federal banking and anti-money laundering laws. This case of aggravated identity theft and mail, bank, passport and visa fraud led to the largest monetary seizure ever in DSS.

In another major investigation, Orozco and other HSI Los Angeles agents worked in coordination with the assistant regional security officer investigator at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul to uncover a South Korean national (a barred California Attorney) and co-conspirator who submitted fraudulent employment petitions to the U.S. government. The duo helped over 125 Korean national immigrants and their families enter the United States for nonexistent jobs, violating US criminal and immigration laws. They accepted tens of thousands of dollars from each visa applicant. The co-conspirator was arrested in 2020 and sentenced in 2021 for conspiracy to commit visa fraud. The ringleader and mastermind behind the scheme remains a fugitive at large and has an international Red Notice in place to alert international law enforcement partners.

Despite the everchanging circumstances and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Orozco continued to investigate and track down transnational criminals engaging in visa, passport, and bank fraud. He went above and beyond the call of duty and deserves to be recognized for his excellence.