LA grocery magnate accused of ordering killings

[Hot Lips]

LOS ANGELES—A grocery store magnate ordered the killing of rivals, bribed public officials and hired illegal immigrants to bolster and protect his business, a prosecutor in a racketeering trial said Wednesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Searight told jurors during his opening statement that George Torres ran his Numero Uno supermarkets like a criminal enterprise, skimming from store profits and taking revenge on those who crossed him.

Torres and his brother Manuel Torres were part of a group "that used violence, including murder, force, bribery and alien harboring to protect and further their business," Searight said.

The evidence against the brothers includes wiretapped conversations and testimony from former employees and gang members, the prosecutor said.






The Tijuana-born Torres came to Los Angeles with his family, worked on his father's produce route and eventually built Numero Uno, a small empire of 11 grocery stores that serves some of Southern California's grittier neighborhoods.

He was once praised for providing affordable groceries to low-income families.



Among the more serious allegations against him:

After a Numero Uno security guard was killed with his own gun by a gang member in April 1993, Torres told Meza to retaliate. A month later, prosecutors believe Meza killed a member of the gang in a drive-by shooting using a gun provided by George Torres. Two others were wounded in the shooting.
In 1994, George Torres ordered a hit on a member of the Mexican Mafia who demanded the gang be paid money for running the store in its territory. Soon after, Meza killed the suspected gangster outside a barber shop, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said George Torres later asked an accomplice to kill Meza, who disappeared about six months later and has never been found. He's been declared legally dead.




He often paid employees in cash so he didn't have to report the income on his taxes and staffed his stores with illegal immigrants who lived in housing provided by him, court documents said.


[ full article (http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11991485) ]

[ronnieraygun]

Well ****, I'm glad I pay for my generic Oatie-O's at Aldi's in cash. Heaven knows how many illegal German immigrants could be skimming my check card.

Is this place like a ghetto Food Lion or something?

[Hot Lips]

DES MOINES, Iowa — A supervisor arrested after a massive immigration raid at an eastern Iowa kosher slaughterhouse was sentenced Thursday to three years in federal prison for his part in hiring illegal immigrants.
Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, who worked as a supervisor of four departments at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville, will also serve two years of supervised release after prison.
The 36-year-old pleaded guilty last August under an agreement with prosecutors to one count of conspiracy to hire illegal immigrants and one count of aiding and abetting the hiring of illegal immigrants. He had faced up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

[ Full Article (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6322042.html)]

[Hot Lips]

A Long Beach couple has pleaded guilty to smuggling people from the Philippines into the United States and forcing them to work at the couple's home and two elder care homes, federal investigators said today.
Evelyn Pelayo, 53, pleaded guilty Monday to forced labor and the unlawful conduct of holding passports to further forced labor. In a plea agreement, Pelayo admitted she paid co-defendant Rodolfo Deafeliz, 39, $6,000 to smuggle two undocumented immigrants into the U.S. and then forced them to work at her elder care homes, Vernon Way Care Home and Walton Care Home. She confiscated their passports and threatened to turn them over to authorities if they tried to escape.

Her husband, Darwin Padolina, 56, also pleaded guilty to harboring a third undocumented immigrant for private financial gain. Padolina admitted he concealed the undocumented person for 10 years while the person worked as a domestic servant.

[ Full Article (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/03/slave-labor.html)]

[Hot Lips]

A former supervisor at Postville’s kosher meat plant will serve nearly two years in federal prison for his efforts to help and harbor illegal immigrants, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43, was among the first midlevel employees arrested after the May 2008 raid on Agriprocessors Inc. The Mexican national, who came to the United States illegally but later became a lawful resident, pleaded guilty last year to one count of aiding and abetting the harboring of undocumented aliens.

De La Rosa-Loera oversaw about 70 workers in the poultry (http://www.puanga.com/prodtype.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=129&numRecordPosition=1)department, prosecutors said. In May 2007, he told illegal workers they would need to change their Social Security numbers and names to continue working at the plant. The workers also needed to "start over" for a wage of $6.25 an hour, prosecutors said.


[ full article (http://www.farminguk.com/news/United-States-Meat-Boss-goes-to-prison.12783.asp)]

[Hot Lips]

A Butte man has been fined $5,000 and sentenced to five years of probation after pleading no contest to employing previously deported illegal immigrants (http://www.kxmb.com/t/illegal-immigrants).

Magdaleno Barragan, 45, entered his no contest plea to unlawful employment of aliens Monday before U.S. Magistrate Jeremiah Lynch in Missoula.

Prosecutors say Barragan employed at least three illegal aliens at his Melaque Mexican restaurants between January and March 2006.


[ full article (http://www.kxmb.com/News/342466.asp) ]

[Hot Lips]

PROVIDENCE -- Today's sentencing for an operator of Falcon Maintenance Company in Johnston has been postponed until next Friday.
Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi is scheduled to sentence Vincent D'Elia at 9:30 a.m. He faces up to six months in prison and a fine of $3,000 for each unauthorized worker that his firm employed to perform janitorial services at state courthouses.
Last fall, D'Elia, of 160 Winsor Ave., Johnston, pleaded guilty (http://www.projo.com/news/content/falcon_owner_pleads_10-23-08_GTC15H5_v10.3b90342.html)to one misdemeanor count of engaging in a pattern and practice of hiring illegal immigrants for employment, knowing that they were not authorized for employment in the United States.

[ full article (http://newsblog.projo.com/2009/03/sentencing-for.html)]

[Hot Lips]

After another dose of the "if you (U.S.) will hire them, they must come" excuse for illegals breaking our laws, I decided to Google and see which Americans' were to blame for their plight and what if anything is being done about it.

Seems some action is underway, but is there a pattern emerging among these American employers?

Are they former immigrants helping and sometimes preying upon new immigrants? I'm sure they are not the only ones, but I didn't have to dig for these headlines.

Maybe our immigration process isn't tough enough.

[FourthMan]

Well thats one way to take care of the competition.

[5./FjgBtl610]

Well ****, I'm glad I pay for my generic Oatie-O's at Aldi's in cash. Heaven knows how many illegal German immigrants could be skimming my check card.

Is this place like a ghetto Food Lion or something?
rofl, - nice one
Frank

[Carib]

I guess you could say he was the 'bagman.' ooooohhhhhhh

[Laworkerbee]

Among the more serious allegations against him:

* After a Numero Uno security guard was killed with his own gun by a gang member in April 1993, Torres told Meza to retaliate. A month later, prosecutors believe Meza killed a member of the gang in a drive-by shooting using a gun provided by George Torres. Two others were wounded in the shooting.
* In 1994, George Torres ordered a hit on a member of the Mexican Mafia who demanded the gang be paid money for running the store in its territory. Soon after, Meza killed the suspected gangster outside a barber shop, according to court documents.

****, a grocer and a garbage collector. I kind of like this guy.

[wicked_hind]

For a second, I thought Vons or Trader Joe's were about to trifle on his territory.

[ronnieraygun]

For a second, I thought Vons or Trader Joe's were about to trifle on his territory.

Got a trader joe's and a Cub foods near my work - I go out on my lunch break and hit the free samples at cubs and trader joe's and never have to pay for lunch. Sure, I get yelled at by Ethiopians at Cub's because they think i'm scamming the place, but all I have to do is ASK FOR THEIR ****ING PAPERS, BITCHES.

[loganinkosovo]

"


After a Numero Uno security guard was killed with his own gun by a gang member in April 1993, Torres told Meza to retaliate. A month later, prosecutors believe Meza killed a member of the gang in a drive-by shooting using a gun provided by George Torres. Two others were wounded in the shooting.
In 1994, George Torres ordered a hit on a member of the Mexican Mafia who demanded the gang be paid money for running the store in its territory. Soon after, Meza killed the suspected gangster outside a barber shop, according to court documents."


He should have received a medal for these two......

But the third one showed he was no different from gang members and the mafia.

[Nano]

****, a grocer and a garbage collector. I kind of like this guy.

I believe I brought him up previously in a another thread related to drugs/corruption. The guys is interesting in how he started out selling fruits and vegetables out of a converted van. He is getting milked for all he is worth right now with legal fees and the such. The grocery chain still exists, but now the big mobsters control it.