Owner of Bartow company gets 10 years in prison for forced labor of Mexican workers

The owner of a Bartow-based farm labor company was sentenced to 118 months in prison on Thursday for leading a conspiracy that trapped Mexican agricultural workers into forced labor in the U.S. between 2015 and 2017.

Bladimir Moreno, 55, the owner of Los Villatoros Harvesting LLC at 8331 Alturas Road in Bartow, the labor contracting company that employed the workers, was charged in September 2021 and pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and conspiracy to commit forced labor. U.S. District Court Judge Charlene Edward Honeywell of the Middle District of Florida sentenced Moreno to 118 months in prison with three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay more than $175,000 in restitution to the victims.

Two of Moreno’s co-defendants previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy under RICO, and a third, Guadalupe Mendes, 45, pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct a federal investigation. They were sentenced in October.

Efrain Cabrera Rodas, a citizen of Mexico who worked for LVH as a recruiter, manager and supervisor, received 41 months in prison. Christina Gamez, a U.S. citizen who worked for LVH as a bookkeeper, manager and supervisor, received 37 months in prison. Mendes, a U.S. citizen, who worked for LVH as a manager and supervisor, received eight months of home detention and a $5,500 fine to be paid over 24 months of supervised release.

According to court documents, Moreno's farm labor contracting company brought large numbers of temporary, seasonal Mexican workers into the United States on H-2A agricultural visas and compelled them to work in Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia and North Carolina. Authorities also said he engaged in a pattern of other racketeering activity that included visa fraud and fraud in foreign labor contracting, among other things.