Two labor companies and three individuals charged with harboring illegal alien workers and conspiring to launder $12 million

Defendants allegedly provided more than 1,000 illegal workers to national air cargo firm

CINCINNATI - A federal grand jury here has returned a 40-count criminal indictment charging two temporary labor companies, the president of these companies and two of their corporate officers with violations related to a large-scale illegal alien employment and money laundering scheme.

The indictment alleges that the Garcia Labor Company Inc. and Garcia Labor Company of Ohio, Inc (together known as Garcia Labor Companies) entered into a contract in December 1999 to provide temporary workers to sort freight for ABX Air, Inc., an independent and publicly traded company that provides air cargo transportation services nationwide from its base in Ohio and 18 hubs throughout the country. As part of its contract, Garcia Labor agreed that it all workers would be in compliance with applicable laws.

According to the indictment, Garcia Labor and the other defendants instead knowingly employed illegal aliens and provided them as contract workers to ABX Air and other companies. From December 1999 until about January 2005, the defendants caused more than 1,000 illegal workers to be employed sorting freight at ABX Air, knowing that these employees were not authorized to work in this country.