A recently unsealed indictment shows that several federal law enforcement agencies have uncovered what they consider to be one of the largest cases of human trafficking and visa fraud in the United States, VICE reports.
As in the outlet it says:
While migrants toiled as contract workers in the fields of Georgia, some dug onions for pennies a bucket with their bare hands and threatened them with a weapon. Members of the people smuggling and trafficking accused withheld their passports and documents to prevent them from escaping, the indictment said.
The investigation – “Operation Blooming Onion” – resulted in a list of felony charges against two dozen indicted members and employees of a seemingly transnational criminal ring federal authorities have named the transnational criminal organization Patricio.
A 70-year-old Ms. Maria Leticia Patricio, listed as one of the defendants, is charged with filing fraudulent petitions for the H-2A work visa program, which allows employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States for there to do agricultural temporary work.
Also, according to the indictment, some were “illegally forced to do lawn maintenance, construction, and restaurant work; and others were threatened with violence or deportation, ”says VICE.
According to the Justice Department, workers were “held in cramped, unsanitary quarters and fenced labor camps with little or no food, limited sanitation and no clean water.”
According to VICE, workers were “illegally sold and traded to other conspirators within the criminal ring … who raised more than $ 200 million under the program.”
Law enforcement agencies began an investigation into the organization in November 2018. They were charged with targeting 24 traffickers.
