A Guatemalan man has pleaded guilty to charges related to an operation that took immigrant teenage boys from U.S. custody and put them to work as virtual slaves on Marion-area egg farms.
Federal prosecutors say ArdoloRigoberto Castillo-Serrano was behind a scheme that involved filing fraudulent government paperwork to claim the teens from custody after they crossed the border. They say he was in the U.S. illegally for much of the past decade. He pleaded guilty Monday in Cleveland to charges of forced labor conspiracy, forced labor, witness tampering and encouraging illegal entry into the country. He'll be sentenced later. Prosecutors say at least eight teens and two young men were brought from Guatemala and were forced to work long hours at the farms and live in dilapidated trailers. Trillium Farms, which operates the facilities where the men worked, relied on a contractor to supply laborers and has not been charged.
