Massive Case Involves 600 Thai Victims
ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center
SOURCE: FBI
29January2011 6:40pmEST
GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: It seemed pretty straightforward: labor recruiters in Thailand 
approached impoverished rural farm workers—who made around $1,000 (U.S.) annually—and offered jobs on American farms for higher pay.
Many, hoping to provide a better life for their families, accepted the offer, which was made through an American company called Global Horizons, in the business of recruiting foreign workers to work in the U.S. agricultural industry. But once in the U.S., the Thai workers soon discovered a harsh reality: they worked for little or no pay, and they were held in place with threats and intimidation.
Eventually, their plight became known to law enforcement, and earlier this month, after a multiagency investigation, two additional defendants—accused of being part of the scheme to hold 600 Thai nationals in forced agricultural labor—were indicted in federal court in Honolulu. They joined six individuals who had been indicted last fall.
Among those indicted? The CEO of Global Horizons, several Global employees, and two Thai labor recruiters.
The latest indictment alleges a conspiracy among those indicted that began in 2001 and ran until 2007. (read full report)
