Florida family charged with immigrant slavery

Washington, D.C. – A federal grand jury has indicted six family members in Immokalee with enslaving Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants into forced agricultural labor.

The 17 count indictment charges the Cesar Navarrete and Geovanni Navarrete beat, threatened, restrained and locked workers in trucks, to force them to work.

The indictment also says they underpaid the workers, imposed debts on them, and threatened them if they tried to leave before their debts were paid.

Cesar, Geovanni, Jose, Villhina, Ismael and Michael Navarrete and Antonia Zuniga Vargas are also charged with harboring undocumented foreign nationals for private financial gain,

If convicted, Geovanni and Cesar Navarrete face more than 200 years in prison. The other face terms of 40 years or more.