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 de minimis pay. Moreno and his co-conspirators used various coercive means, including 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, jailtime and deportation; isolating workers by preventing them from interacting with anyone other than LVH employees; and 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.
Source: Owner of Farm Labor Contracting Company Pleads Guilty in Racketeering Conspiracy Involving the Forced Labor of Mexican Workers | OPA | Department of Justice
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