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Camp owner sentenced for selling migrants crack
The Associated Press

January 27, 2007

JACKSONVILLE -- The owner of two migrant-labor camps was sentenced to 30 years in prison Friday after being found guilty of hiring drug addicts and homeless people at minimum wages and then selling them crack cocaine and beer at inflated prices.

Ronald Evans Sr., 60, was convicted in August on 57 charges of engaging in a criminal enterprise, distributing crack cocaine, dealing in contraband, spoiling the environment, violating federal farmworker statutes and more than four dozen counts of improper financial transactions.

Evans' attorney, William Kent, said his client planned to appeal the judgment and the sentencing.

Evans' two labor camps in East Palatka and New Grove, N.C., have been forfeited to the government, and he and his wife, Jequita, a co-defendant, also must hand over $1.1 million, The Miami Herald reported.

Jequita Evans was found guilty of 49 of the 51 charges against her and will be sentenced next month.

The couple recruited men from homeless shelters, charged them $50 a week for room and board and put them to work in potato and cabbage fields for minimum wages. At the end of the work day, workers were allowed to purchase crack cocaine, cigarettes and beer at inflated prices on credit, authorities said.

When they were paid on Saturday, workers often found they owed money to Evans and his wife.

"Everyone realized this was an abhorrent act," U.S. Attorney Paul I. Perez said.