Owner of farm labor company receives nearly 10 years in prison for forced labor of Mexican workers

Federal prosecutors have announced that a man convicted of forcing Mexican workers into prolonged labor arrangements will spend nearly 10 years in prison for those crimes. 

The Department of Justice said in a press release that Bladimir Moreno would spend 118 months in prison "for leading a federal racketeering and forced labor conspiracy that victimized Mexican H-2A agricultural workers in the United States" from 2015 to 2017. 

Moreno "compelled victims to work in Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia and North Carolina," the DOJ said in the release, "and he engaged in a pattern of other racketeering activity that included visa fraud and fraud in foreign labor contracting, among other things."

Several other conspirators involved in the racket received sentences of various lengths and degrees. 

"This defendant abused his power as a business owner to capitalize on the victims’ vulnerabilities and immigration status, luring those seeking a better quality of life with false promises of lawful work paying a fair wage," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in the release. 

Moreno will also be required to pay over $175,000 in restitution as part of the terms of his sentence.