Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Annual Results for FY 2025: Criminal Enforcement

EPA’s criminal program strengthens cooperative federalism by working collaboratively with state environmental crimes task forces. EPA also works in cross-agency partnerships with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to investigate and prosecute criminal organizations whose conduct includes criminal activities beyond environmental crimes. EPA frequently supports state and federal law enforcement partners through investigative assistance and forensic expertise. In FY 2025, EPA’s criminal enforcement program trained over 1,000 law enforcement officers at partner agencies on a wide range of environmental crimes topics. 

EPA’s FY 2025 strategic priorities include:

• Combating foreign-affiliated criminal networks. In FY 2025, EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division has focused efforts to detect, deter, and dismantle foreign-affiliated criminal networks profiting from polluting America and threatening human health, which has resulted in 13 defendants charged and two sentenced and included over $4.1 million in restitution.
• Securing the southern border. EPA partnered with DOJ, HSI, and CBP to secure the U.S. border and combat smuggling activities of transnational criminal organizations, which resulted in 13 criminal defendants sentenced in FY 2025.  
• Operation: Disrupt HFCs. EPA’s cooperative federalism efforts to disrupt the illegal smuggling of HFCs included charging six defendants with violations of the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act. 

Case highlights

J.H. Baxter

In April 2025, a U.S. district court sentenced the J.H. Baxter companies and their president for systemic violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Clean Air Act. The defendants, while operating a wood treatment facility in Oregon, routinely and illegally evaporated hazardous wastewater for years, knowingly venting hazardous air pollutants into the atmosphere. The court imposed a $1.5 million criminal fine on the companies and sentenced the president to 90 days in prison followed by a year of supervised release for being aware of the practice and lying to conceal the illegal activity from state regulators. As a result of the long-term contamination, the EPA added the facility to the Superfund National Priorities List to facilitate comprehensive environmental cleanup. 

Read more: Oregon Wood Treatment Companies and President to Pay $1.5M Criminal Fine for Hazardous Waste and Air Pollution Charges press release.

"The J.H. Baxter companies knowingly mishandled hazardous waste and repeatedly violated the Clean Air Act by venting hazardous substances directly into the air, right across the street from people's homes. ...Today's sentencing highlights the significant penalties that Congress has provided for illegally treating or disposing of hazardous waste as well as the Agency's continued efforts to ensure that Americans have clean air, land, and water."

Acting Assistant Administrator Jeffrey A. Hall (Apr. 23, 2025)

Kama’aina Termite and Pest Control

In April 2025, a Hawaiian woman was sentenced to 84 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release for racketeering and conspiracy. She was part of a criminal organization involved in murder, kidnapping, arson, robbery, and racketeering conducted in part through a pest extermination business. EPA partnered with DOJ, FBI, U.S. Internal Revenue service (IRS), and HSI to investigate and prosecute the ringleader and participants for releasing a pesticide as a chemical weapon into two Honolulu nightclubs, resulting in numerous injuries. At the ringleader’s direction, the defendant submitted to Hawaii’s Department of Agriculture (HAD) falsified fumigation logs, which claimed that she was the certified applicator of chemicals on hundreds of jobs. By falsifying documents, she obstructed EPA and the state’s criminal investigation. Though the ringleader died while awaiting sentencing, this case resulted in the seizure of $20 million of ill-gotten assets, more than 32 years of incarceration for all the co-conspirators, and $49,998 in restitution.  

Read more: Miske Enterprise Member Sentenced to 7 Years in Federal Prison for Racketeering Conspiracy DOJ press release. Additional information on this case is available in DOJ’s Members of Organized Crime Ring Charged with Racketeering and Use of a Chemical Weapon DOJ press release.