http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbc ... S/61213021

UPDATED: 12:51 PM
Louisville Swift & Co. workers indicted
By Kay Stewart
kstewart@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

Four workers from Louisville’s Swift & Co. meat packing plant are among hundreds of company employees in several states facing federal charges relating to illegal immigration and identity theft.

The four, identified in court documents as citizens of Guatemala, were indicted last month by a federal grand jury in Louisville after company employment records had been subpoenaed and reviewed by federal agents, according to court records.

Each is charged with falsely representing himself as a U.S. citizen and using another person’s social security number to gain employment at the plant on Story Avenue. They have pleaded not guilty.

The plant, one of the company’s three U.S. pork processing plants, was not among Swift & Co. sites raided Tuesday by federal agents in six states. The agents rounded-up suspected illegal immigrants in an identity theft operation. Federal officials said the workers were arrested on administrative immigration violations and, in some cases, criminal warrants stemming from a nearly year-long investigation.

Affidavits in the Louisville cases, filed by a local federal agent with Immigration Customs and Enforcement, say several employment verification forms filed by company workers had been subpoenaed from the company’s plant in Louisville.

But it could not be determined whether that action was related to the year-long nationwide investigation that culminated in Tuesday’s raids. Spokespeople for the U.S. Attorney’s office, and the Swift plant in Louisville were not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.

Each of the indicted workers in Louisville had filled out forms indicating they were U.S. citizens and used “fraudulently obtained identification documents and social security cards,” according to the affidavit.

Nicolas Ciprian-Cortes, 28, Jose Ramos-Jose, 23, and Gregorio Larios-Gomez, 24, all of Shelbyville, and Domingo Alvarez-Ciprian, 21, of Taylorsville, were all arrested in October as they left work.

They were indicted in November on charges of falsely representing themselves as U.S. citizens, and illegal possession and use of another person’s social security number to gain employment.

Ciprian-Cortes is also charged with re-entering the United States without permission after he was deported on Jan. 25, 2002.

He faces maximum penalties of 18 years in prison followed by deportation. The others face maximum penalties of eight years in prison followed by depotation.

Larios-Gomez was arrested by federal agents on Oct. 12 as he left work; the three others were arrested on Oct. 5 as they departed the plant parking lot in the same car, according to court records.