OHIO
A federal court on Thursday unsealed charges against a fourth defendant involved in a labor-trafficking scheme that forced minors to work at egg farms in central Ohio, officials said.
The defendant was apprehended Saturday by Border Patrol while attempting to cross the border between Mexico and the United States.
Three other defendants have previously been convicted for participating in the scheme.
The indictment unsealed today alleges that Duran Ramirez contracted to provide labor for Trillium Farms while knowing that some of the workers were being trafficked.
In addition to the charges for forced labor and for conspiracy, Duran Ramirez is facing a charge of encouraging another person to illegally enter the United States. Duran Ramirez, 49, is a United States citizen.
Three other defendants have pleaded guilty to participating in the trafficking scheme.
Those defendants admitted to recruiting workers from Guatemala, some as young as 14 or 15 years old, falsely promising them good jobs and a chance to attend school in the United States, according to officials.
The defendants then smuggled and transported the workers to a trailer park in Marion, Ohio, where they ordered them to live in dilapidated trailers and to work at physically demanding jobs at Trillium Farms for up to 12 hours a day.
The work included cleaning chicken coops, loading and unloading crates of chickens, de-beaking chickens and vaccinating chickens. Eight minors and two adults were identified as victims of the scheme.
Aroldo Castillo-Serrano, the lead smuggler and primary enforcer, was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.
Ana Angelica Pedro-Juan, who oversaw the victims in Ohio, was sentenced to 10 years. Conrado Salgado-Soto, who arranged jobs for the victims, was sentenced to more than four years.
The indictment unsealed today alleges that Salgado-Soto was a subcontractor hired by Duran Ramirez.
At the sentencing of the other defendants, Senior U.S. District Judge James G. Carr found that they threatened workers with physical harm and withheld their paychecks in order to compel them to work.
Three additional defendants, including Duran Ramirez’s son, plead guilty to encouraging illegal entry into the U.S.
Duran Ramirez is facing up to 20 years in prison for the trafficking and conspiracy counts. The count of encouraging the entry of illegal aliens carries a sentence of up to five years.
The defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.