The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published a statement addressing a Northern District of Ohio's federal court's decision to unseal a 15-count superseding indictment that charges three defendants who lured Guatemalan minors and adults into the U.S. under false pretenses and used threats of physical harm to coerce them into forced labor on an egg farm in Ohio.

The DOJ Head of the Civil Rights Division Vanita Gupta and U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach of the Northern District of Ohio announced the indictment and charged a fourth defendant with related immigration offenses.

The indictment states that the defendants and their associates recruited workers from Guatemala with the promise of well-paying jobs and education. The perpetrators then smuggled and transported the Guatemalans, some as young as 14 or 15 years old, to a trailer in Marion, Ohio. There, they were subjected to backbreaking labor at Trillium Farms for 12 hours each day. Their work included de-beaking chickens, vaccinating chickens, cleaning chicken coops and loading and unloading crates of chickens.

Guatemalan-born Aroldo Castillo-Serrano and Ana Angelica Pedro Juan and Mexican-born Conrado Salgado Soto are charged with labor trafficking conspiracy. Castillo-Serrano was charged with 10 counts of forced labor, and Salgado Soto and Pedro Juan are charged with eight counts. Additionally, Castillo-Serrano, Salgado Soto and a fourth defendant, U.S.-born Pablo Duran Jr., are charged with related immigration offenses. Moreover, Castillo-Serrano and Pedro Juan are charged with witness tampering. Pedro Juan faces added charges for making false statements to law enforcement.

The Guatemalan workers, comprising eight minors and two adults, were reportedly tactically terrorized with threats of bodily harm and the withholding of paychecks to pressure them to work.

The FBI Cleveland Office's Mansfield Resident Agency and the Department of Homeland Security are investigating the case, and it's being jointly prosecuted by Trial Attorney Dana Mulhauser of the Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Chelsea Rice of the Northern District of Ohio.

Each count of the 11 forced labor and forced labor conspiracy charges carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The other charges carry statutory a maximum sentence of five years in prison.