Two women and a man accused of conspiring to force a dozen Mexican farmworkers in the United States into forced labor were sentenced to fines and jail terms.
Those sentenced were Efraín Cabrera Rodas, to 41 months in prison, and 25,000 dollars in fines, Christina Gamez to 37 months in prison and fined 9,000 dollars which, as in the case of Cabrera Rodas, will be to compensate the victims.
Guadalupe Mendes was also sentenced to eight months in prison and a $5,500 fine with two years of supervised release, US District Court Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell said in her ruling.
“These defendants exploited the vulnerabilities and immigration status of their victims, promising them access to the American dream, but then turned around and confiscated their passports and threatened to arrest and deport them if they did not work tirelessly for profit,” the attorney general said. deputy of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, Kristen Clarke, quoted in a statement.
This is the case in which last September Bladimir Moreno, owner of Los Villatoros Harvesting (LVH), associated with those sentenced today to victimize workers who had worked in various US states between 2015 and 2017 with an H-2A visa.
Dark pleaded guilty and his sentencing schedule is expected to be ready by next December, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Following a legal settlement, Moreno agreed to pay more than $173,000 in compensation to the victims.
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