Maria Perez | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A Georgia-based human-trafficking scheme that brought Mexican men to work on farms in the U.S. has a Wisconsin connection, according to a federal indictment filed this week.

Some of the defendants' workers wound up at operations of Franksville-based Borzynski Farms, which has facilities in Wisconsin and Georgia, based on a review of other documents by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Officials with Borzynski issued a statement that said they did not know the workers were being abused and that the company is no longer working with the firm in question.

The indictment accuses five people of conspiring to force 14 Mexican men to work on eastern Wisconsin farms in 2016 by harming them or threatening them with serious harm.

“Trafficking another human being is a particularly vile crime,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew D. Krueger of the Eastern District of Wisconsin, whose office issued the charges. "The Department of Justice is committed to prosecuting anyone who seeks to sell another person’s freedom.”

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Four of those charged — Saul Garcia, 49; Saul Garcia Jr., 26; Daniel Garcia, 28; and Consuelo Garcia, 45 — are from Moultrie, Georgia. The fifth, Maria Remedios Garcia-Olalde, 52, is a Mexican national.

The indictment alleges defendants took the passports of the “workers to restrict their ability to travel in Wisconsin” and gave them fraudulent permanent resident cards and Social Security numbers.

According to the indictment, Daniel Garcia said in an application to bring foreign agricultural workers to the U.S. that they would only work in Georgia, but he and other defendants knew the workers would be illegally transported to Wisconsin.

If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison.

In a statement to the Journal Sentinel, Borzynski Farms said the company contracted with Garcia & Sons, then a licensed farm labor contractor, for harvesting services in the time period referred to in the indictment.

"At no time did Borzynski Farms know of the use by Garcia and Sons of illegal laborers, or laborers who were being abused," the statement said.

The statement said Garcia & Sons supervised its own workforce and that Borzynski Farms has cooperated fully in the federal investigation. The company stopped using contract laborers from Garcia and related companies when Garcia’s actions became known, the statement added.

"Borzynski Farms is disheartened that its fields and facilities may have been used by Garcia & Sons to exploit or cause harm to any worker," the statement said. "Borzynski Farms believes that being a farmworker is a valuable and honorable profession, and it continues to take steps to ensure that workers and contracted laborers on its farms have a healthy and fair work environment."

A company official did not respond to questions about whether the workers hired by the defendants worked at the company's farms in Wisconsin, Georgia, or both.

The indictment did not name the Wisconsin farms where the workers were placed, but a Journal Sentinel review of various federal documents provides more insight into the various connections.

In 2016, Daniel Garcia's company C & D Harvesting was authorized by the U.S. Department of Labor to hire 272 seasonal foreign laborers to work in Georgia, documents show.

The workers were authorized to labor on farms associated with four different growers from March or April 2016 through January 2017.

Meanwhile, Garcia & Sons — a company that had Saul Garcia and Consuelo Garcia as its officers in 2016 and shared its address with C & D Harvesting — was authorized to bring 48 foreign seasonal agricultural workers to Georgia between September 2015 and July 2016, as well as 64 during the fall and winter of 2016.

Among other tasks, the workers would plant or harvest bell peppers, greens, salad onions, cucumbers, cabbage, tomatoes and tobacco. C & D Harvesting's application said the workers would be paid at least $10.59 an hour, the legally required wage.

The company planned to house many of the workers in Georgia in barrack-style units with capacity for 32 to 100 workers, or in mobile homes with a capacity of 10 workers each, according to DOL records.

A Borzynski Farms related company owned two properties where C & D Harvesting planned to house some workers — two homes with capacity for 17 and 19 workers.

Garcia's application listed as worksites three locations associated with Borzynski Farms, which also produces crops in Georgia.

Another client was Moore Farms in Georgia, the Journal Sentinel has learned.

Owner Tim Moore said he had contracted with Daniel Garcia's crews to pick crops on his 1,100 acre-farm for at least five years.

He knew the company got into trouble after they took some workers to Wisconsin, but doesn't believe they were abusing the laborers. Garcia brought some of the same workers to Georgia year after year, Moore said, and described his working relationship with Saul and Daniel Garcia as a good one.

Moore said that in his area most farms use foreign guest workers and very few local residents work in agriculture. He hires farm labor contractors instead of employing the workers himself because "it’s a headache that I don’t have to deal with."

Indictment details properties

The indictment identified 15 properties associated with the defendants that could be subject to forfeiture, as well as 15 vehicles.

The properties include at least eight single-family homes and a warehouse owned by Consuelo Garcia, according to Georgia tax assessors records.

Garcia's company address, a single-family home with a swimming pool owned by Consuelo Garcia, was listed in the indictment as one that will be forfeited if defendants are convicted of certain charges. That property could have been used to commit the offenses or may have been purchased as a result.

The indictment charges Saul Garcia with witness tampering and accuses both Saul Garcia and Maria Remedios Garcia-Olalde of trying to withhold and falsify evidence.

The names of the Mexican workers were not included in the indictment.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement that the charges came after a multiyear human trafficking investigation by several law enforcement agencies including the FBI, the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, Homeland Security Investigations and the Racine Police Department.

Rod Ritcherson, an official with United Migrant Opportunity Services, a Milwaukee-based group that provided emergency assistance to Garcia's workers, said seasonal farmworkers are vulnerable to exploitation.

"They often come here alone, not knowing anyone," he said. "Their housing and meals are supplied by the employer, they do not have their own transportation and if they want to find a job elsewhere, they can’t leave."

Ritcherson said that the number of abuses identified and prosecuted by authorities around the country in the agricultural guest worker program show there's a need for laws that would better protect the workers.