Pablo Duran Ramirez, 50, will be sentenced in January after he plead guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to encouraging the illegal entry of Guatemalan nationals, including unaccompanied minors, into the United States for financial gain, according to officials.
Duran Ramirez faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. His sentencing date has been set for Jan. 7, 2019. Duran Ramirez is the fourth defendant to plead guilty in connection with a labor trafficking scheme that forced work at egg farms in central Ohio.
Eight minors and two adults were identified as victims of the scheme, according to officials.
According to court evidence, through his company, Haba Corporate Services, contracted to provide labor to Trillium Farms, knowing that the workers were unlawfully present in the United States.
He further admitted that some of the workers were unaccompanied minors who had been coerced or threatened to enter the U.S. and then housed in an isolated trailer park in Marion, Ohio.
In 2013 and 2014, Trillium Farms paid the defendant’s company approximately $6 million for its labor services.
“Motivated by greed, the defendant violated the immigration laws and contributed to the exploitation of vulnerable children who lacked immigration status,” said Acting Assisting Attorney General John Gore. “The Department of Justice will use its resources to prosecute individuals who unlawfully victimize others for their own monetary profit.”
“This defendant profited off the desperation of children and their parents and other relatives,” said U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman of Ohio. “He knew some of the workers he delivered to Trillium Farms were underage, in the country illegally and were threatened or coerced. We will continue to work to eliminate human trafficking in all its forms.”
“This defendant, in conspiracy with three other previously convicted individuals, coerced and assisted individuals to enter the United States illegally, many of them children, forcing them to live in deplorable conditions and work for little to no wages,” said Special Agent in Charge Stephen D. Anthony of the FBI’s Cleveland Division.
Three other defendants—Aroldo Castillo-Serrano, of Guatemala, Ana Angelica Pedro-Juan, of Guatemala, and Conrado Salgado-Soto, of Mexico—previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the same labor trafficking scheme.
Castillo-Serrano, the lead smuggler and primary enforcer, was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in prison; Pedro-Juan, who oversaw the victims in Ohio, was sentenced to 10 years; and Salgado-Soto, a subcontractor hired by Duran Ramirez, was sentenced to four years and three months.
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 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.
During their sentencing, Senior U.S. District Judge James G. Carr found that they had threatened workers with physical harm and withheld their paychecks in order to compel them to work.
Three additional defendants, including Duran Ramirez’s son, pleaded guilty for their roles in encouraging the workers’ illegal entry into the United States.