Woman pleads guilty to charges in forced labor and human smuggling scheme

SAN DIEGO - A Guatemalan woman pleaded guilty here yesterday to federal charges following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that revealed she and her husband ran a criminal organization that smuggled Mexican nationals into the United States and forced them to work using physical and verbal threats.

Gloria Eugenia Leon-Aldana, 37, pleaded guilty to three counts of bringing in illegal aliens for financial gain and one count of forced labor. As part of her plea, Leon-Aldana admitted she forced an alien to work by threatening to report him to the Border Patrol if he did not comply with her instructions. Leon-Aldana is scheduled to be sentenced April 7.

According to court documents, Leon-Aldana and her Mexican national husband, Mario Antonio Antunez-Sotelo, 44, harbored the smuggled aliens at two residences located in Logan Heights. The aliens held in those homes were repeatedly threatened and the couple took their identity documents to keep them from fleeing.

Antunez-Sotelo has been charged with threatening the aliens and their families with physical harm and brandishing a shotgun at one of the residences. He remains at large and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.