Bladimir Moreno, 55, pleaded guilty in Tampa, Florida to conspiracy charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and conspiracy to commit forced labor, officials announced this week.
A federal grand jury in Florida had previously returned a six-count indictment against multiple defendants for their roles in a federal racketeering conspiracy.
The conspiracy victimized Mexican H-2A workers who had worked between 2015 and 2017 in the United States harvesting fruits, vegetables, and other agricultural products.
“The scheme these defendants employed trapped the victims through fear of serious harm if they did not continue to toil away for the defendants’ profit,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “
“Forcing individuals to work against their will using abusive and coercive tactics is not only unconscionable but illegal,” said U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg for the Middle District of Florida.
According to court documents, Moreno owned, operated, and managed Los Villatoros Harvesting (LVH), a farm labor contracting company that functioned as a criminal enterprise compelling victims to work in Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia, and North Carolina.
After charging Mexican farm workers exorbitant sums to come into the United States on short-term, H-2A agricultural visas to work for LVH, Moreno and his co-conspirators coerced over a dozen workers into providing long hours of physically demanding agricultural labor, six to seven days a week, for minimal pay.
Moreno and his co-conspirators used various coercive means, including acts:
- Imposing debts on workers
- Confiscating the workers’ passports
- Subjecting workers to crowded, unsanitary and degrading living conditions
- Verbally abusing and humiliating the workers
- Threatening workers with arrest, jail time and deportation
- Isolating workers by preventing them from interacting with anyone other than LVH employees
- Threatening to physically harm the workers’ family members back in Mexico if the workers failed to comply with their demands
In addition to conspiring to subject H-2A workers to forced labor, Moreno and his coconspirators also harbored H-2A workers in the United States after their visas had expired for financial gain and committed visa fraud and fraud in foreign labor contracting.
Earlier this year, three co-defendants who had worked for Moreno and assisted him in operating LVH pleaded guilty to related offenses.
Christina Gamez, 43, a U.S. citizen, who worked for LVH as a bookkeeper, manager and supervisor, pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy.
Efrain Cabrera Rodas, 32, a citizen of Mexico, who worked for LVH as a recruiter, manager and supervisor, also pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy.
Guadalupe Mendes Mendoza, 45, a citizen of Mexico, who worked for LVH as a manager and supervisor, pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct a federal investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ilyssa Spergel for the Middle District of Florida and Trial Attorneys Avner Shapiro, Maryam Zhuravitsky, and Matthew Thiman of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section are prosecuting the case.