WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - Four people who were charged with money laundering, forced labor, and other immigration-related offenses at a Williamsburg laundry facility will appear in court on Tuesday.
According to a press release, a 33-count indictment alleges that 47-year-old Ana Landaverde, 64-year-old Dean Vaughan and 68-year-old George Evans engaged in a conspiracy to harbor, transport and benefit from employing undocumented noncitizens at Northstar Holdings of Virginia LLC, which did business under Magnolia Cleaning Services, LLC.
Sis Reyes Rodrigois alleged to have acted as an illegal supplier of fraudulent identification documents for the immigrants, such as permanent resident cards and social security cards.
The four will be appearing in court on Dec. 13, 2022, and we will make sure to update this article when we learn more.
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Records show that between the first quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2022, the business had around 121 employees with alleged invalid or mismatched social security numbers and wage payments of more than $1.2 million to these employees.
The indictment alleged that Landaverde, Vaughan, and Evans engaged in the human trafficking of labor from Central America and benefitted from forced labor.
One of the victims alleged that the suspects brought her to the United States when she was 13 years old and was forced to work during the night after going to school throughout the day.
Another victim alleged that the suspects made them work under threats such as deportation or physical violence, as well as made the victim pay rent to live in the laundry facility.
News 3's Leondra Head went to the Greenwich Mews neighborhood where authorities say the victims were being housed. One neighbor tells me she’s in shock.
"It’s really quite surprising. We haven’t seen any evidence of it, of course, that’s disturbing," Squire said.
Martha Squire says she saw several police cars at the residence of the suspects indicted. But didn’t know what had happened.
"I’m concerned and of course, trafficking is so awful and to think about children. That’s really a tough thing. This is a very quiet. It’s really a surprise. Until a few years ago, we really didn’t have a school bus because the population here was older," Squire said.
