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The US Attorney's Office in Connecticut issued a statement on Friday about a Mexican national who plead guilty to her involvement in a scheme to smuggle aliens into the U.S., harbor them at Hartford area residences, force them to work, and threaten to harm them in various ways if they failed to pay exorbitant fees, interest, and other living expenses.
Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Porfiria Maribel Ramos Sanchez, 47, a citizen of Mexico last residing in Vernon, CT, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley in Bridgeport.
Beginning in September 2022, several illegal immigrants admitted to FBI and Hartford Police that they were smuggled from Mexico to the US, and eventually transported to Hartford. The victims said Ramos charged $15,000 to $20,000 to cross the border, and also required collateral, usually a property deed, before leaving Mexico.
After arriving in Connecticut, the illegal immigrants were told they would now have to pay $30,000 with interest, and that they would have to pay Ramos and her co-coconspirators for rent, food, gas and utilities. The co-conspirators created false documents, including Permanent Residence cards and Social Security cards, and helped victims get jobs in the Hartford area. Some victims were also required to do housework and yard work without compensation and without having their debt reduced.
Victims were rarely provided with an accounting of their debt. If victims failed to make regular and full payments, they were sometimes threatened, including with threats to harm family members in Mexico, to take the "collateral property" in Mexico, to rat them out to Immigration, and to raise interest payments.
Investigators have identified 18 victims of this scheme.
Ramos pleaded guilty to conspiracy to encourage and induce, bring in, transport, and harbor aliens, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years. Sentencing takes place on January 6, 2025.
Ramos has agreed to a restitution order of $494,608, and has agreed, in conjunction with her husband, to sell a property they own at 74 Burnside Avenue in East Hartford that was used in the trafficking scheme.
Ramos has been detained since her arrest on October 5, 2023.
This investigation is being conducted by the FBI, Hartford Police Department, U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
