Eleven executives and managers from Specialty Foods Distribution (SFD), a Joplin, Missouri-based company, have been sentenced in federal court for their involvement in a racketeering conspiracy related to the employment and harboring of undocumented workers across several Midwestern states.
R. Matthew Price, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, commented on the case: “Immigration issues in the country and in this district are not limited to those who illegally enter the United States. Businesses and entities who skirt the law and provide an environment that encourages and assists undocumented individuals to enter and remain in the United States unlawfully will be held accountable. My office is committed to prosecuting both individuals who illegally enter the United States as well as businesses and entities that profit off their labor. I would like to thank our law enforcement partners at HSI Kansas City for their work on this important matter.”
Mark Zito, Special Agent in Charge at HSI Kansas City, stated: “The sentencing handed down today sends an unmistakable message. If you build your business on illegal labor and criminal racketeering, you will pay a steep price. This criminal enterprise was a calculated attack on our laws, our economy, and the most vulnerable among us. HSI Kansas City will not tolerate those who exploit workers and cheat honest business owners for profit. Today’s sentence proves that anyone who thinks they can get away with this kind of lawlessness will be hunted down, prosecuted, and held to the highest account.”
The defendants admitted to participating in a racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations (RICO) conspiracy from January 2018 through August 2021. During this period, they transported, employed, harbored, and encouraged Mexican, Guatemalan, and El Salvadoran nationals without legal authorization to live or work in the United States. The group provided housing for these workers and sometimes supplied fraudulent identification documents.
SFD’s executive staff included Jose Luis Bravo (chief executive officer), Jose Guadalupe Razo (president), Anthony Edward Doll (chief financial officer), and Miguel Tarin-Martinez (controller). They oversaw affiliated restaurants throughout Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma which were managed or staffed by other co-conspirators named in court documents.
Prosecutors detailed how these executives gained an unfair competitive advantage by staffing restaurants with unauthorized workers—workers unavailable to compliant businesses—and used various methods such as keeping certain employees off payroll records; requiring them to work during hours less likely for federal inspection; failing to maintain proper Form I-9 documentation; falsely attesting compliance; submitting inaccurate wage reports; and facilitating fraudulent identification documents.
In total so far, courts have imposed 164 months of imprisonment among all defendants involved along with forfeiture orders exceeding $6.4 million.
Sentences included:
– Jose Luis Bravo received 36 months’ imprisonment plus three years’ supervised release along with over $5.7 million forfeiture.
– Jose Guadalupe Razo was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment plus three years’ supervised release with more than $130 thousand forfeiture.
– Anthony Edward Doll received ten months home detention as part of probation plus over $132 thousand forfeiture.
– Miguel Tarin-Martinez was given 24 months’ imprisonment plus three years’ supervised release with about $23 thousand forfeiture.
Other managers received sentences ranging from eight months home detention up to fifteen months’ imprisonment depending on their roles within various restaurant locations operated under SFD’s network.
Three additional defendants have pleaded guilty but await sentencing.
The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations with support from multiple agencies including the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General; IRS Criminal Investigations; Kansas Bureau of Investigation; state labor departments; highway patrols from both Kansas and Missouri; as well as local police departments.
This prosecution falls under Operation Take Back America—a Department of Justice initiative targeting illegal immigration networks along with transnational criminal organizations.
