FLORIDA MAN SENTENCED ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING-RELATED CHARGES

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Department of Justice today announced the sentencing of a Florida man previously convicted on human trafficking-related charges. Ramiro Ramos was sentenced to 15 years in prison for conspiring to hold workers in involuntary servitude and harboring undocumented workers.

United States District Court Judge K. Michael Moore sentenced Ramos to 15 years in prison, fined him $20,000 and ordered the defendant to forfeit property valued at over $3 million. In addition, the court issued an order of deportation. Ramiro Ramos’ brother, Juan Ramos, also scheduled to be sentenced today will now be sentenced on May 3rd.

The brothers were Florida labor contractors who supplied migrant farm laborers to citrus growers. Undocumented Mexican citizens were transported to Florida to work for the Ramos brothers. Once in Florida, they were forced to work until they had paid off their transportation debt. The defendants threatened the workers with violence if they left prematurely, and brutally beat a van driver and several of his employees to prevent them from taking workers away from the area.

“It is abhorrent that 139 years after the Thirteenth Amendment banned indentured servitude from the United States, this practice persists,” said R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. “No one should be held in forced labor. We are extremely pleased that the court imposed a sentence commensurate with the vile nature of this crime.”

On June 28, 2002, following a four week trial, a jury found the brothers guilty of conspiring to hold workers in involuntary servitude and of harboring undocumented workers. The jury also determined that real and personal property valued at over $3 million was subject to forfeiture because it was used in furtherance of the conspiracy or was obtained as a result of the criminal enterprise.

This Administration has made fighting human trafficking a significant priority. Since FY 2001, the Division has charged 132 human traffickers - nearly a three-fold increase over the previous three years, and incarcerated 85 defendants - an increase of more than 50 percent over the previous three years. Over that same period, the Division has opened 250 new investigations into trafficking allegations, more than double the number opened in the previous three years. As of January 28, 2004, the Division had open 146 trafficking investigations, more than twice the number open in January 2001.

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