CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Three men accused of facilitating a “modern-day slavery” operation by trafficking workers for cheap labor on several South Georgia farms are headed to prison, according to federal authorities.
The accused — 24-year-old Javier Sanchez Mendoza Jr. of Jesup; 42-year-old Aurelio Medina of Brunswick; and 45-year-old Yordon Velazquez Victoria of Brunswick — were sentenced to prison on charges related to human trafficking and forced farm labor, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia announced March 31.
Mendoza was handed a 30-year sentence while Medina was ordered to serve just over five years, according to a news release. Victoria was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
The cases, though separate, were charged as part of a larger federal investigation dubbed “Operation Blooming Onion.”
Prosecutors said Mendoza, Medina and Victoria all played a part in efforts to bring Central American farm workers into the U.S. “under fraudulent pretenses and to profit from their labor by underpaying the workers,” according to the release. They charged workers to get temporary H-2A work visas, then withheld their identification papers and threatened their families back home, prosecutors said.
Many of the workers were paid little to no money, prosecutors said, and were made to live in “deplorable conditions.”
“The United States abolished slavery and involuntary servitude over 156 years ago, yet these men engaged in the heinous crime of forced labor and chose to exploit their fellow human beings for profit,” Philip Wislar, acting special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta, said in a statement.
“The FBI is committed to working with our partners to purse justice on behalf of victims of human trafficking and prosecuting perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law,” Wislar said.
Several agencies including Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service also helped investigate.
Between August 2018 and November 2019, Mendoza said he recruited and illegally charged more than 500 Central American workers to obtain H-2A visas to work on farms in Glynn, Wayne and Pierce counties, according to court documents. One of the workers, a woman, testified that Mendoza repeatedly raped her for over a year and once kidnapped her at knifepoint, prosecutors said.
Medina faced similar charges, court documents show. Together, he and Victoria also charged workers for the visas and forced them to work in Glynn and Effingham counties between April and October 2020, prosecutors said.
“Victoria, a naturalized U.S. citizen, admitted he conspired with Medina and allowed Medina to use his name to apply for the use of H-2A workers, and then transported those workers from housing to work for which Victoria was paid $600 per week,” according to the news release.
Jessica Moore of the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service said Thursday’s sentencing “sends a strong message.”
“We are firmly committed to working to prevent situations where vulnerable individuals are exploited in human trafficking schemes such as this,” she said.
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