SACRAMENTO
Nery A. Martinez Vasquez, 54, and Maura N. Martinez, 54, both of Shasta Lake, California, were both sentenced Monday for forcing three Guatemalan victims to work at their businesses, according to officials.
Vasquez was sentenced to six and a half years in prison and Martinez was sentenced to three years in prison.
Both defendants were also ordered to pay a fine of $25,000, in addition, to paying $300,000 as restitution, officials stated. Both are naturalized U.S. citizens originally from Guatemala, officials stated.
According to court documents, from September 2016 to February 2018, the defendants — who owned and operated a restaurant and janitorial service — used various coercive means to force their victims into working long hours of physically demanding work, seven days a week, for minimal to no pay.
In August 2016, the defendants convinced the victims, a Guatemalan relative and her two minor daughters, ages 15 and 8, to come to the United States by falsely promising the victims a better life.
They arrange for them to enter the United States and overstay their temporary visitor visas.
The defendants then conspired with each other to impose an inflated debt on the victims that they required the victims to pay back by working for them, according to officials.
When the adult victim complained and expressed an interest in leaving, the defendants threatened to have the victims arrested for overstaying their visas unless they continued working the same long hours, seven days a week, for little pay.
Similarly, the defendants kept the two minor victims working at their businesses instead of attending school by telling the victims that immigration authorities would find and arrest them if they attempted to go to school, officials stated.
The defendants housed the victims in a dilapidated, unheated trailer with no running water, and degraded and humiliated them in front of others. Finally, the defendants used force and threats of force to intimidate the victims.
For instance, Nery Martinez Vasquez beat the children with a stick that had the children’s name and nickname written on it along with the phrase “what goes up, must come down.”
“These defendants exploited vulnerable victims, forcing them to work in their businesses, failing to pay wages, and depriving them of basic human rights,” said U.S. Attorney Talbert. “Now they have been sentenced to years in prison and have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution to their victims. “
“We hope today’s sentencing will offer the victims confidence as they continue to reclaim their lives,” said Special Agent in Charge Sean Ragan for the FBI Sacramento Field Division. “Forced labor, a form of human trafficking, is of significant concern for the FBI, but is difficult to identify and investigate without cooperation of fearful victims who believe escape is not an option because of the lies they have been told by their exploiters.”