Feds Bust Dozens In 'Modern-Day Slavery' Operation, Migrant Held At Gunpoint On Georgia Farms

[appalachiablue]

- Wellington, Colorado. Mexican migrant workers harvest organic spinach at Grant Family Farms, Oct. 11, 2011. Demand for the farm's organic produce is high but Andy Grant said that his migrant labor force, mostly from Mexico, is sharply down this year & that he'll be unable to harvest up to a third of his fall crops, leaving vegetables in the fields to rot.
Grant said that stricter U.S. immigration policies nationwide have created a "climate of fear" in the immigrant community & many workers have either gone back to Mexico or have been deported. He requires proof of legal immigration status from his employees but undocumented migrant workers frequently obtain falsified permits in order to work throughout the U.S. Many farmers nationwide say they have found it nearly impossible to hire American citizens for labor-intensive seasonal farm work.
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Daily Kos, Dec. 6, 2021. - Ed.

After three years and the efforts of a multi-agency investigation, dozens of victims of human trafficking are free from the fetters of “modern-day slavery” on South Georgia farms. The over 100 victims were smuggled from Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras and brought to the farms where they were “imprisoned” under “inhumane” and “brutal” conditions, and forced to work for little or no money. At least two workers died, and one was allegedly raped repeatedly. The indictment is dubbed “Operation Blooming Onion,” and a spokesperson from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia told VICE News, it may be one of the largest-ever human trafficking and visa fraud investigations in the country.

According to the 54-page, newly unsealed indictment, workers were often required to dig onions with their bare hands and were paid only 20 cents for each bucket harvested. They were threatened at gunpoint and held in fenced-in work camps in “cramped, unsanitary quarters” and given “little or no food, limited plumbing,” and no safe water. Two dozen accused members and associates of the “Patricio” crime ring face myriad felony charges. The alleged scheme netted over $200 million, laundering the fun through cash purchases of land, homes, vehicles, and businesses, after buying cashier’s checks and then funneling the millions through a casino.

The defendants are additionally accused of “raping, kidnapping, and threatening or attempting to kill some of the workers or their families.” In many cases, victims were sold or traded to other conspirators.
“The American dream is a powerful attraction for destitute & desperate people across the globe, and where there is need, there is greed from those who will attempt to exploit these willing workers for their own obscene profits,” David Estes, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of GA, said in a statement.

Sadly, although this bust in GA is significant, according to Solimar Mercado-Spencer, a senior staff attorney at the Farmworker Rights Division of the GA Legal Services Program, a nonprofit law firm that represents low-income farmworkers in GA, “This has been happening for a long time.” “And these people that were arrested are not the only ones doing these things,” Mercado-Spencer told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I hope [law enforcement] keeps busting these operations because that’s not the only one going on in Georgia.”

She adds: “Because it’s happening in rural areas, nobody sees the victims...

More,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/12/6/2067791/-Feds-bust-dozens-in-modern-day-slavery-operation-migrant-held-at-gunpoint-on-Georgia-farms
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Related: 'Germany: Police Raid Meat Industry Farms Over Illegal Migrant Workers: Exploited & Infected.' SEE Post #5, Below.

[multigraincracker]

1. Need lots of jail time for

being to lazy to pick their own spinach.

[DURHAM D]

2. As an American I am so ashamed that this is going on in the 21st century. nt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. More, from The AJ-C:

‘This has been happening for a long time’: Modern-day slavery uncovered in South Georgia

NEWS
By Lautaro Grinspan, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dec 3, 2021

Crackdown on human trafficking operation signals shift in immigration enforcement

A yearslong human trafficking operation trapped migrant workers in “modern-day slavery” on South Georgia farms, according to a federal indictment unsealed last week.

Victims include over one hundred laborers smuggled from Mexico and Central America into “brutal” and “inhumane” working conditions. Under the threat of gun violence, some were allegedly forced to dig for onions with their bare hands, earning only 20 cents for each bucket harvested. At least two people died on the job. Another was allegedly repeatedly raped.

When not out in the fields, workers were detained in work camps surrounded by electric fencing, or held in cramped living quarters, including dirty trailers with raw sewage leaks. There was little to no access to food or safe drinking water.

Twenty-four accused members and associates of the criminal enterprise that perpetuated the exploitation now face a slew of felony charges, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia. The multi-agency cooperation that yielded the indictment – dubbed “Operation Blooming Onion” – may be one of the largest-ever human trafficking and visa fraud investigations in the country, VICE News reported.

Only two of the defendants are described as South Georgia business owners in the indictment; most were labor contractors or recruiters. Their alleged criminal mistreatment of workers took many forms. ... According to the indictment, laborers were charged unlawful fees for transportation, food and housing. And though they were putatively hired for agricultural work, some migrants were illegally used for lawn care, construction, and repair tasks. To prevent escapes, members of the accused crime ring unlawfully confiscated workers’ passports and documents. Conspirators also sold and traded workers amongst themselves, per the indictment.

{snip}

[appalachiablue]

4. Thanks, more on this horrible issue in America.

[Ray Bruns]

6. But on the lamestream media tonight:

How to get that right christmas gift before December 25th.

[ToxMarz]

9. "Only two of the defendants are described as South Georgia business owners in the indictment most.."

"Only two of the defendants are described as South Georgia business owners in the indictment; most were labor contractors or recruiters."

I think more emphasis needs to be put on the businesses and businessmen who availed and enriched themselves of these workers, not just on the "crime ring". There is only market for slave labor if there is demand for it.

[appalachiablue]

5. Germany: Police Raid Meat Industry Farms Over Illegal Migrant Workers: Exploited & Infected

- At the Tönnies slaughterhouse in NW Germany, more than 1,500 workers contracted COVID-19 in June & had to be quarantined. The outbreak also led to the reimposition of a lockdown on two nearby districts. DW, July 21, 2020.
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- DW, 'German police raid meat industry firms over illegal workers.' Working conditions in the meat industry have made headlines after COVID-19 outbreaks in slaughterhouses. Investigators are turning their attention to subcontracters suspected of smuggling in migrant workers illegally. Sept. 23, *2020.
-----
Around 800 officers launched raids on more than 40 premises in five German states in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The investigation is centered on two companies, IRC and Berkana, which are suspected of illegally bringing workers from eastern Europe to Germany to place them in meatpacking jobs, a police spokesman said.

Ten people in total working for the two companies are accused of falsifying EU travel documents for citizens of non-EU countries like Belarus and Ukraine and organizing their travel into Germany, the spokesman added. Police said they had documented a recent increase in people stopped at Germany's borders traveling on false documents. The raids are primarily being carried out in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. Further searches are being conducted in Lower Saxony in Berlin, Saxony and North Rhine Westphalia.

Working conditions in the spotlight: A special commission led by the public prosecutor in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt is at the head of the investigation into illegal contract workers being brought into Germany from eastern Europe. The commission was set up in April 2020, before a series of coronavirus outbreaks at German meat packing warehouses revealed that many workers live in cramped and run-down quarters.

A massive outbreak in June at the Tönnies slaughterhouse in the western city of Gütersloh led to thousands of COVID-19 cases, which resulted in lockdowns for the city and the neighbouring district. A Romanian worker at the Tönnies factory told DW in June that workers are mostly brought into Germany by subcontractors. The worker added that meat packers work long hours, were not paid overtime, and were forced to work while sick. - Government promises reform: For decades, German meat processors have cut costs by employing thousands of workers from low-wage countries such as Romania, Bulgaria and Poland.

Instead of hiring the workers directly, the companies often rely on opaque, multilayered networks of subcontracted firms...https://www.dw.com/en/german-police-raid-meat-industry-firms-over-illegal-workers/a-55022253
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- Also: 'German slaughterhouse overhaul: Radical reform or return to status quo?' Germany's meat industry is preparing for upheaval after coronavirus outbreaks exposed unsafe conditions for its large base of Eastern European workers. But will the government's plans do enough to strengthen protections? DW, July 21, 2020.
https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-meat-industry-germany-t%C3%B6nnies-working-conditions/a-54252645

[cstanleytech]

7. The people behind this should get life in prison without the chance of parole but my bet is

they will probably get a conservative judge that gives them a slap on the wrist.

[Grins]

8. Same with tomato pickers in Florida.

[Solly Mack]

10. K&R