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Scheme for illegals detailed
By MARCIE SCHELLHAMMER
Era Reporter
The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, N.Y., against the men targeted in a five-state investigation into harboring illegal aliens spells out a detailed plan alleging skimmed money and forced labor.
Last Wednesday, Jorge Delarco, who federal officials say is really Simon Banda, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, as were 10 of his associates. Delarco owns or operates restaurants in New York state, Ohio and West Virginia, as well as La Herradura in Bradford.
Raids on restaurants and homes netted 45 illegal aliens last week, according to federal officials. Officials in Georgia were involved as well, as Delarco was allegedly hiding money at his sister’s Atlanta residence, records indicate.
During the course of the investigation, immigration agents interviewed two cooperating witnesses and seven undocumented aliens relating to “their illegal entries, and the illegal entries of others into the United States, the payment of smuggling and transportation fees owed to the restaurant owner, their previous employment and the previous employment of others in other cities,” along with detailed information about fees paid to restaurant owners, the hours they worked and their rates of pay.
Immigration agents learned that Delarco paid the undocumented aliens low wages, no overtime, made them work for tips and pay him a percentage in return to retain their employment, the records indicate.
The illegal aliens all lived together and worked for Delarco in a restaurant, or would be moved to various restaurants he owned, and would pay Delarco or one of his managers for their housing, the records read. The aliens had to work for Delarco until their smuggling fees were paid off, federal officials allege.
The first cooperating witness, who has been ordered deported from the U.S., has been cooperating with immigration since May 2006. The witness has worked in the Mexican restaurants in Bradford, Allegany, N.Y., Cheektowaga, N.Y., Dunkirk, N.Y., and in Ohio.
The second witness, who has also been ordered deported, has known Delarco for several years. He related conversations to immigration regarding Delarco admitting to employing undocumented aliens, harboring them and transporting them between and among his restaurants, according to court records.
One of the witnesses told immigration agents that Delarco said all his restaurant managers had been instructed to under-report the daily cash sales from each restaurant by 50 percent and deliver those “skimmed proceeds” to Delarco, the records read. The cash was kept in safe deposit boxes in New York, West Virginia and Georgia, the records allege.
Included in the evidence gathered by federal investigators were some allegedly incriminating receipts from the Bradford restaurant.
The criminal complaint states that on Aug. 30, 2007, Honorio Banda had asked one of the government witnesses to clean out his car and throw away the papers inside it. The witness contacted immigration officials and told them where the papers were disposed of, and the agents recovered them from the garbage, the records read.
The papers included tally sheets from La Herradura which spelled out how much money Delarco had skimmed from the business, which was $46,738 for the time span covered by the sheets found in Banda’s car, the records read.
Federal agents also spoke to an illegal alien who had worked for Delarco. He described being smuggled in from Mexico for $2,700 and being dropped off at the restaurant in Cheektowaga. There, he met defendant Sergio Resendiz, who never asked him for any identification or to fill out any forms before giving him a job, according to the criminal complaint.
Resendiz told him he was to be a cook for six days a week from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and would be paid $600 in cash every two weeks. Of his pay, $300 was paid back to Resendiz to pay for his smuggling fees, the records read.
The illegal aliens would pool their funds to pay Honorio Banda for rent and utilities, the records read.
A former girlfriend of Delarco’s, Heather Stanek, was also interviewed by immigration officials. She told agents that the waiters and waitresses make only tip money and not a salary, but the managers, who were Delarco’s brothers, were well paid, the records read.
Among the men arrested by federal authorities, defendant Sergio Resendiz, who resides in Salamanca, N.Y., is a former brother-in-law of Delarco and is listed as the manager of La Herradura. Honorio Banda, Delarco’s brother, is listed as a past manager of La Herradura, current manager of a restaurant in Ohio, and current resident of Bradford. He is reportedly being detained without bail on allegations that he is in the U.S. illegally.
Javier Banda, another brother, is listed as a past manager of Don Lorenzo’s in Allegany and of La Herradura. A legal resident of Depew, N.Y., he was released on $5,000 bail following last week’s court action.
Delarco is also held without bail.
A detention hearing is scheduled for today in federal court in Buffalo.
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