BERN TOWNSHIP, Pa. – A 911 name made via a determined Nicaraguan migrant alongside a Pennsylvania freeway led police in that state to arrest a South Florida truck motive force on a number of criminal fees Friday, government stated.
That trucker, William Alberto Gutierrez, 63, of Doral, is accused of maintaining that migrant and any other against their will and forcing them to work for him for unfastened.
One used to be pressured to power Gutierrez’s truck cross-country and the opposite used to be pressured to cook dinner and blank, in keeping with the Bern Township Police Department.
Court paperwork state that the sufferer positioned the 911 name at round 4 p.m. Friday because the truck traveled down U.S. 222 in Berks County. The caller described the truck, which had the phrase “Ego” written alongside the facet, and dispatchers have been in a position to trace his telephone throughout the decision.
Authorities have been in a position to find the truck in Bern Township, outdoor of town of Reading, behavior a visitors forestall and in finding the migrants, a person and a girl, at the side of Gutierrez, police stated.
Both migrants have been within the nation illegally and have been in a dating, police stated. The guy advised police that he knew Gutierrez from his place of origin in Nicaragua and he adopted Gutierrez on Facebook.
Gutierrez, in keeping with court docket paperwork, recruited the sufferer to develop into a part of his “CDL training program.”
Police stated he met with Gutierrez a few month prior in Virginia.
“Initially the relationship was good because victim #1 was doing all the driving while the defendant was able to relax,” a Bern Township police detective wrote in a prison criticism. “Victim #1 would do the majority of the driving, sleep for 3-4 hours before driving again. To be clear, victim #1 does not have any sort of driver’s license, let alone a commercial driver’s license.”
That sufferer started to peer “red flags” when he noticed Gutierrez smoking marijuana within the truck after which using, police stated. He “noted that he was not paid in 10 days and started to become suspicious, but kept driving because he believed the money was coming,” the criticism states.
Police stated Gutierrez promised the second one sufferer, who joined them in early April, $2,000 a week as a part of a “training program.”
“Victim #1 started noticing other signs that led him to believe the defendant was not legitimate: (Gutierrez) bypassed the computer module, which allowed them to travel non-stop, the defendant made victim #2 cook and clean for him, the defendant told them to hide in the truck at a weigh station, and they were not getting paid,” police wrote.
Police stated after the pair introduced up the ones “red flags” with Gutierrez, the connection started to “strain.”
The sufferers requested for their cash and to be set unfastened, police stated, however Gutierrez ”would now not permit them to be unfastened and threatened their households in Nicaragua, threatened that they’d be deported and didn’t pay them.”
Those threats scared the pair into compliance, in keeping with police.
Police stated the male sufferer simplest felt comfy calling 911 after noticing Gutierrez used to be “in a trance-like state” after smoking marijuana and “took a chance” via calling police.
Even throughout the interviews, police stated the pair “were still scared of deportation, highlighting the power of this threat.”
Pennsylvania government arrested Gutierrez on a bevy of fees, together with two counts of involuntary servitude, a first-degree criminal in that state, at the side of two counts each and every of trafficking in people and nonpayment of wages.
He’s additionally going through two misdemeanor counts of illegal restraint.
The two migrants have been arrested via Immigration and Customs Enforcement and launched on their very own recognizance.
Court paperwork state that Gutierrez used to be being held within the Berks County Prison.
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