A Florida man is set to serve almost 10 years in prison after leading a forced labor and human trafficking operation that brought farm workers to Indiana.
While their names are only abbreviated, according to court documents, four of those victims worked in Knox County.
Bladimir Moreno pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering and another count of conspiracy to commit forced labor.
Moreno owned and ran a labor contracting firm that brought Mexican farmworkers to the United States on temporary visas.
They allowed people to legally enter the country for seasonal agriculture work.
Authorities say between 2015 and 2017 Moreno ran that operation like a criminal enterprise.
Police say he lied about worker wages, coerced victims into doing work by confiscating their passports and threatening to have them deported, and kept them in unsafe, unsanitary living conditions.
These victims were technically employed by Moreno and not the farms they worked on.
