Firms plead guilty to harboring aliens
Posted on Friday, October 12, 2007
The operators of two Mexican restaurants in Northwest Arkansas pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges of harboring illegal aliens after prosecutors agreed to drop the remainder of their charges.
Honorato Pedroza and Gema Rivera-Soto, both of Springdale, were arrested in May after immigration agents raided the Taqueria Michoacan restaurants in Springdale and Rogers. Immigration agents said they arrested 21 illegal aliens in connection with the raid.
They both had been indicted in U. S. District Court on additional charges of money laundering and operating an unlicensed money service business. Rivera-Soto also was charged with using a fake Social Security card.
They face up to 10 years in prison and $ 250, 000 in fines.
Agents state in court documents that Pedroza illegally transferred $ 295, 000 from a bank account to Mexico during 2006. He’s accused of transferring money by using a money service business without being licensed by the U. S. Treasury Department.
A sentencing hearing has not been set.
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