The three men were charged in separate but related cases related to a federal investigation dubbed Blooming Onion, prosecutors said in a news release.
“These men engaged in facilitating modern-day slavery,” U.S.
Javier Sanchez Mendoza Jr., 24, of Jesup, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in forced labor and was sentenced to serve 30 years in prison.
Mendoza admitted that from August 2018 to November 2019, he was a leader in a scheme to provide labor and services for farms and other businesses in Glynn, Ware and Pierce counties, the release says.
One victim testified during sentencing that Mendoza picked her from a work crew after she arrived from Mexico and brought her to live with him, making her believe falsely that she had married him.
Law enforcement officers who found her at Mendoza’s mobile home in Jesup and rescued her found a shrine to Santa Muerte, “Saint Death,” decorated with her hair and blood, the release says.
citizen, admitted that he allowed Medina to use his name to apply to use H-2A workers and was paid $600 a week to bring the workers from their housing to work.