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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1999

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THREE FLORIDA MEN CHARGED WITH SMUGGLING INDIVIDUALS FROM MEXICO AND FORCING THEM INTO INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Three southwest Florida men have been arrested and charged with smuggling individuals from Mexico, holding them against their will, and forcing them to work in tomato fields in Immokolee, Florida, federal authorities with the National Worker Exploitation Task Force announced today.

A criminal complaint, filed and unsealed in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers, charged Abel Cuello, Jr., his brother Brasillo Cuello, Herman Covarrubias and a fourth individual, with conspiracy to hold individuals in involuntary servitude, extortion, harboring aliens, and various violations of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. The maximum penalty for all charges is thirty six years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years supervised release. However, harboring illegal aliens can be punishable by up to ten years per victim.

"This circumstances of this case are tragic," said Bill Lann Lee, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and co-chair of the Task Force. "But its discovery and the rapid response by law enforcement demonstrates that the work of the Task Force is paying off."

"This case reflects our commitment to bring to justice those employers who exploit and abuse their workers," said Henry Solano, Solicitor of the Department of Labor and co-chair of the Task Force.

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This morning, agents of the U.S. Border Patrol, working with the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), arrested the three individuals and liberated twenty seven victims. The fourth individual remains at large.

"This effectively dismantles an alien smuggling enterprise and brings its perpetrators forward to face these charges," added Charles Wilson, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. "Today, we also send a clear and unmistakable message that this, or any, form of modern- day slavery has no place in America."

This case is the result of an interagency investigation by agents and prosecutors from the Border Patrol, INS, the Departments of Labor and Justice, and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Fort Myers, under the auspices of the National Worker Exploitation Task Force, which was founded last year to address the problem of modern-day slavery in the U.S.

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