DOJ v. Alexander Villatoro Moreno

Alexander Villatoro Moreno pleaded guilty to conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. According to the DOJ, Villatoro Moreno and co-defendants operated Los Villatoros Harvesting (LVH), a farm labor contracting company that functioned as a criminal enterprise compelling victims to work in multiple states. Villatoro Moreno and co-defendants allegedly fraudulently recruited Mexican nationals to come into the United States on short-term, H-2A, agricultural visas; misled the United States to secure visas for the victims; charged workers exorbitant recruitment fees; lied to the victims about payment, hours, working conditions, and reimbursement; compelled workers to provide long hours of physically demanding agricultural labor for less pay than they were entitled to under the law; used coercive means to compel the victims’ labor; imposed debts on workers; confiscated the workers’ passports; subjected workers to crowded, unsanitary and degrading living conditions; verbally abused and humiliated the workers; threatened workers with arrest, jailtime and deportation; isolated workers; and threatened to physically harm the workers’ family members. Villatoro Moreno allegedly obstructed the federal investigation by helping to prepare false payroll information and distributing fake reimbursement receipts.

Summary generated from official Department of Justice press release