One Pleads Guilty in Largest U.S. Human Trafficking Case

One of the eight people charged in the largest human trafficking case in U.S. history has pled guilty to conspiracy.

Bruce Schwartz was operations manager for Global Horizons and an on-site supervisor at several farms where the laborers worked. Schwartz and seven others are charged with exploiting about 600 farm workers from 2001 to August 2007 and holding them as indentured laborers at farms in at least seven states including Hawaii.

Schwartz plead guilty in federal court Tuesday, admitting to recruiting workers in Thailand despite learning that they had paid large fees to recruiters in Thailand — illegal under the U.S. guest worker program Global Horizons was using.

The case moves forward as the Hawaii Legislature considers several bills that would criminalize human trafficking.

Read it at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.