Trillium
Farms of Ohio says it didn’t know some of its workers were illegal
immigrants working as virtual slaves on its farms that market about
17 million dozen eggs a year.
A
federal judge sentenced two men to prison on Monday for taking part
in a scheme to smuggle teens into the U.S. and keep them as virtual
slaves at the farms, but he delayed sentencing for the ringleader
after learning he had not given up properties taken from the victims'
families.
In
2014, federal agents raided a dilapidated trailer park near Marion
where the 10 young Guatemalans had been living with no heat and
little food. Some said they were lured with the promise of attending
school in the U.S. or plucked out of custody at the Mexican border.
Eight were under age 18.
The
teens and young men were forced to work at the egg farm and turn over
most of their earnings to pay for their passage to the U.S.,
investigators said.
One
of the young men spoke in court Monday, revealing he was 17 when he
was smuggled over the border and thought he would be attending
classes.
The
man, whose name was shielded to protect his identity, said when he
complained, the smuggling operation's leader, Aroldo
Castillo-Serrano, called his father.
"He
threatened my father with three bullets," the young man said
through a translator. "That's when I started to worry about my
family."
While
he was speaking, Castillo-Serrano sat on the other side of the
courtroom with his arms folded, glaring at the young man.
Prosecutors
say he engineered the scheme, making victims' family members sign
over deeds to their property in Guatemala to pay for transporting the
boys, with assurances they would be enrolled in school.
U.S.
District Judge James Carr delayed part of the sentencing because he
said the properties were still held by relatives of Castillo-Serrano.
He angrily told him to get rid of the properties by late June or face
a much stiffer sentence.
The
judge told him that he "will see to it that nobody profits
anyway whatsoever from the crimes you committed."
Castillo-Serrano,
a Guatemalan who is in the U.S. illegally, most likely faces at least
a decade in prison. He agreed to plead guilty last year to forced
labor conspiracy, forced labor, witness tampering and encouraging
illegal entry into the country.
Trillium
Farms faces no charges.
