Task force nabs 19 in business raids
Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2007
ROGERS — Immigration agents raided a string of Acambaro Mexican restaurants on Monday while prosecutors moved to seize the Northwest Arkansas locations, claiming they are a hub for illegal workers.
Nineteen people were arrested in the morning raids that included a related business in Benton County, Garcia’s Distribution Co., according to a news release from the U. S. attorney’s office in Fort Smith.
The owner of both companies, Arturo Reyes Sr. of Rogers, was not arrested, but some of his relatives who operate both companies were.
Among those arrested were Reyes’ nephew, Arturo Reyes Jr., 35, Silvia Reyes, 36, and Lucila Huaracha, 33, all of Rogers, and Armando Reyes, 33, of Lowell, the news release states.
The four are illegal aliens who face charges related to harboring and employing illegal aliens for financial gain, the U. S. attorney’s office said.
The U. S. attorney’s office declined to elaborate on the charges Monday, but a civil forfeiture complaint filed on Monday states that money laundering is part of the investigation.
Enrique Morales, who manages the Springdale Acambaro restaurant, said police raided four restaurants in Benton and Washington counties about 9 a. m.
“They are looking for people with fake work papers,” Morales said.
Former Acambaro employ- ees told immigration agents that they were hired without having to show identification proving they are legal residents, or by using phony or stolen Social Security numbers, according to the forfeiture complaint.
The defendants are accused of lying on federal I-9 forms that employers are required to complete and to keep on file. The forms show employers verified the worker’s identity and eligibility to work.
Agents reviewed Social Security numbers on file at Acambaro and Garcia’s Distributing and found some were phony, had been stolen or belonged to dead people, the complaint states.
One former Acambaro employee said he was paid in cash and that Reyes Jr. provided him with a red truck to drive to work.
Sources told agents that business records are moved regularly from location to location because of the lack of a corporate office, and that both companies paid illegal alien employees in cash, or “off the books,” the complaint states.
Federal prosecutors are seeking to forfeit Reyes Jr. ’s house at 2706 Creekside Drive in Rogers, saying it, the four Acambaro locations and the two Garcia’s sites were purchased with money derived from harboring and employing illegal aliens.
The restaurant locations are: 121 N. Thompson St. in Springdale; 406 N. Bloomington St. in Lowell; 301 S. Walton Blvd. in Bentonville; and 215 S. Eighth St. in Rogers.
The Garcia’s locations are 305 S. Lincoln St. in Lowell and 208 S. Seventh St. in Rogers.
Acambaro and Garcia’s have locations in southwest Missouri, but those sites weren’t raided.
The raids were by the Immigration Criminal Apprehension Task Force, comprising federal immigration agents and police in Washington and Benton counties.
The task force, formed in September, works to arrest illegal aliens in Northwest Arkansas for deportation and federal criminal charges.
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