Guilty of forced labor on Ohio farm, man gets 15 years

Jul 06, 2016

Guatemalan will be deported when prison term ends

By Bill Brown
Farms.com Media

A man who smuggled Guatemalan teenagers into the U.S. and forced them to work on an Ohio egg farm was sentenced in Toledo last week to 15 years in prison.

Aroldo Castillo-Serrano and associate Conrado Salgado Soto had previously pleaded guilty to labor-trafficking and immigration offences, according to a report in The Marion Star. Ana Angelica Pedro-Juan, who ran the operation for Castillo-Serrano, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Another individual, Pablo Duran Jr., pleaded guilty to immigration offenses.

Back in December 2014 federal agents and local police took down the operation based in a trailer park near New Bloomington, rescuing some 35 young captives at the time.

eggs

According to court documents most of the trafficking occurred in 2013 and 2014.

Workers were forced to work 12-hour shifts, six or seven days a week, vaccinating and debeaking chickens, and cleaning coops.

They received little pay and in some cases were threatened that family members would be murdered if they did not cooperate.

Investigators said Castillo-Serrano and associates lured the workers with promises of education and employment in the U.S.

Eggs were sold to Trillium Farms have explained they were unaware of the legal infractions. The company markets over two billion eggs a year at various locations around Ohio.

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