Federal prosecutors in Missouri have charged 19 restaurant owners and managers – including El Charro restaurants in Mountain Home and West Plains – accusing them of a racketeering scheme to hire and employ immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
Fourteen of the 19 people indicted were arrested. Among those charged are 50-year-old Eusebio Ramirez-Ceja of Mountain Home and Jose Luis Lopez-Valadez of West Plains.
The indictments unsealed Wednesday charges the defendants with counts ranging from fraud and conspiracy to money laundering and illegal use of social security numbers. They were unsealed as federal Homeland Security agents carried out search warrants at 10 locations in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma.
The case involves 45 Mexican restaurants across several states that received employment services from Specialty Foods Distribution, based in Joplin, Missouri, and another affiliate. Prosecutors allege that over the course of nearly 20 years, the company helped staff the restaurants with people not eligible to work in the U.S.
The indictment names Jose Louis Bravo, of Claremore, Oklahoma, and owner of Specialty Foods Distribution, as the leader of the operation. The Associated Press’ attempts to reach Bravo through the company Thursday morning were unsuccessful, and a message for Bravo could not be left with the company’s voicemail system.
The investigation was launched following a Kansas Department of Labor inquiry into employment practices at Bravos Mexican Grill in Overland Park, Kansas, according to prosecutors.
Bravo is accused alongside others of providing fake documents for employees and sending that information to state and federal agencies. Prosecutors say he also helped arrange the smuggling of immigrants across the U.S. border to work in the restaurants. The conspirators allegedly did not pay the appropriate state and federal payroll taxes, overtime wages and worker’s compensation for unauthorized employees.
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