ACCOMAC, Va. - WBOC has acquired copies of a federal Grand Jury indictment against multiple suspects alleging they harbored and employed undocumented immigrants, including children, while working for a poultry plant sanitation contractor in Accomack County.
The indictment, first filed on Nov. 5 but sealed until Nov. 14, lists four defendants, their names redacted, formerly employed with Fayette Industrial Services. Fayette was previously contracted as a third-party janitorial service at slaughter and meat packing facilities including Perdue Farms in Accomack County and was accused of hiring children as young as 13 in those facilities. In 2024, Fayette was ordered to pay nearly $650,000 in penalties in connection to the ensuing federal investigation.
Now, investigators have turned their attention to the individuals allegedly involved in employing not only minors, but undocumented employees as well.
The four individuals indicted, according to court documents, include a former division manager for Fayette, a former regional division human resources manager, a former site manager from Guatemala who did did not have legal status to live or work in the country, and a suspect who lived in Parksley and allegedly sold fraudulent IDs to employees to conceal their lack of legal status.
Investigations begin
The indictment first outlines an incident in February of 2022 in which a 14-year-old,reportedly employed by Fayette, was seriously injured while cleaning a poultry processing machine at a plant in Accomack County owned by what the court filing refers to only as “Company 1”.
As WBOC has previously reported, the federal government launched a probe into local poultry plants after a 14-year-old boy living in Parksley had been gravely wounded at a Perdue slaughterhouse. The teen would later be identified as an employee of Fayette.
According to this month’s indictment, Fayette’s I-9 on file for the injured boy falsely listed him as an adult with a fake name and incorrect legal status.
An initial investigation by the Department of Homeland Security found Fayette employees who worked at the poultry plant in Accomack “overwhelmingly used fraudulent documents for their employment,” the indictment reads. DHS said of the 353 employees reviewed, 339 of them were found working under suspect documents.
About 293 of the employees used ID cards from Delaware or North Carolina, according to court records. Of those, 284 driver’s license numbers were found to be invalid.
Allegations
The Grand Jury alleges that beginning at least in October of 2020 and through January 2024, the defendants conspired with each other and others to defraud the United States by circumventing immigration and child labor laws and concealing undocumented non-citizens for financial gain.
In order to accomplish this fraud, the suspects have been accused of “producing, purchasing, and using fraudulent identification documents, including Social Security cards and driver’s licenses, so that the illegal aliens could be entered in the I-9 system without government authorities, and concealing and shielding their identities from the same.”
Along with the teen injured in 2022, the indictment goes on to list multiple undocumented employees allegedly hired by the defendants to work at Fayette. One employee, according to court documents, was allowed to work under the alias “R.A,” a name that had been flagged by the Social Security Administration as a stolen identity and previously used by another employee. When one defendant pointed this out to another, the second defendant reportedly dismissed the concern, prompting the first to say “as long as I don’t know I don’t care,” according to court documents.
The undocumented immigrant who then began using the “R.A.” alias was a 16-year-old enrolled at Arcadia High School, the indictment reads.
Falsified documents
On several occasions, the Grand Jury alleges one of the defendants would assist in obtaining fake IDs including driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and social security cards.
In one instance, investigators say the defendant sent two photographs of undocumented potential employees to an unidentified phone number requesting “two more IDs” on March 20, 2023. Days later, the number responded with photographs of two Delaware drivers licenses, two Texas birth certificates, and two social security cards.
Several of these falsified documents were then sold to prospective Fayette employees on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, the Grand Jury alleges.
Charges and pending case
The four suspects each face a variety of charges, ranging from harboring illegal aliens, aggravated identity theft, and unlawful transfer of false identification documents.
The federal indictment, filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, also seeks the defendants to forfeit any property or proceeds gained through the alleged fraud, as well as any used during the commission of those crimes if convicted.
According to online court records, an arrest was conducted on Nov. 14, with an initial appearance that day, though the sealed court documents did not specify which defendant. On Wednesday, Nov. 19, just days after the case was unsealed, a detention order was listed for Omar Lopez Albares.
Though it is currently unclear which of the four defendants Albares is, the federal court has ordered him detained until trial.
WBOC will continue to monitor the case and provide updates as they become available.