Source: Mail Online
The Tampa Bay Times reports a recent lawsuit filed by a worker at Bulls-Hit Ranch and Farm in Hastings, Florida has exposed a shocking underground slave trade in which contractors take advantage of drug-addicted workers.
According to the newspaper, Florida authorities have failed to stop the practice despite numerous testimonials from workers who say they were held captive with no pay, in exchange for drugs and alcohol.
Drug den? A potato farmer and labor contractor at Bulls-Hit Ranch and Farm in Hastings, Florida, pictured, are accused of labor trafficking in a lawsuit filed by former workers
Farm workers told Times reporter Ben Montgomery of how drugs and debt bound them to a form of indentured servitude in the rural town, with a population of 750.
The exposé follows a lawsuit filed on behalf of of LeRoy Smith last month, who in federal court documents claims he was lured into working at Bulls-Hit while playing a game of chess at a Jacksonville park on May 1, 2010.
Labor contractors, he says, took advantage of his crack addiction, betting that he would work for nothing in order to feed it.
Instead, when he got there, Smith says he found 'Slavery. Abuse. Overwork. Deplorable, unsanitary conditions. Drugs,' he told the Times.
The suit, filed by Florida Legal Services and Farmworker Justice on behalf of Smith and another former worker at Bulls-Hit, Dennis Nash, alleges the men were victims of labor trafficking while employed in 2009 and 2010.
They claim the farm's labor contractor, Ronald Uzzle, recruited men from homeless shelters in the region and played on their drug dependencies to build a low-cost work force.
Claimant: LeRoy Smith says in the suit he was lured into working at Bulls-Hit to feed his drug habit
Speaking to Montgomery, Smith described how a recruiter took him to an overcrowded labor camp, where workers lived in squalor and were sold crack, marijuana, alcohol, and the services of prostitutes on credit at interest rates of 100 per cent.
According to the lawsuit, money was taken from workers' wages to pay for rent, food and debts, creating a vicious cycle of debt that prohibited them from leaving and left workers in fear of their employers.
'The only reason there's no shackles is because now they make the people submit to the cocaine. That's what they use to basically control the people,' Smith told the Times.
Some of the workers, Smith acknowledged, appeared content to live within those confines, satisfied by consistent access to drugs and alcohol. Some farmers had been there more than 10 years, he said.
Still, he is not alone is speaking out.
Bennie Cooks, a 57-year-old Army veteran, told the Times he was recruited to Bulls-Hit from a homeless shelter in Savannah, Georgia in 2008; after 19 months, he found his way out, but recalls a hostile and threatening environment that made him fearful to do so.
'They'd intimidate people. If you owed them money, then one guy'd say, "You owe me money. You can't leave." He'd threaten you,' Cooks said.
Another man, Lonnie Smith, said he escaped in 2010 after three years working on the farm he called 'the Island' to pay off his debts, the Times reports.
Smith told of how he woke up at 1am that morning, hid his work clothes and made a run for it.
Accusations: Other men have come forward to corroborate Smith's story, accusing the farm of exploiting homeless men to create a cheap workforce
According to Farmworker Justice, this is not the first time Bulls-Hit has been accused of violating labour laws. The farm was also suied in 2004 under similar circumstances.
Bulls-Hit owner Thomas R Lee, who is named in the suit, could not be reached for comment.
Ronald Uzzle denied the allegations. He claimed the workers are free to leave at will and he does not keep them in debt or withhold paychecks.
He also denied selling the workers drugs. He told the paper: 'There's no drugs sold on this camp. I'm not going to tell you people don't do drugs, but if people want to do drugs, they do it. I can't stop them.'
Local farmworker advocates meanwhile estimate there are between five and 10 families who use similar methods.
But Greg Schell, who is representing Smith and Nash in their case, says he has hope the practice is on its way out.
'It's still there,' he said, 'but it's not as severe as it was with Ron Evans,' referring to a former contractor sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2007 under similar circumstances.
Evans, of East Palatka, was found guilty of luring homeless, drug-addicted workers to his camp and selling them drugs and alcohol to keep them in debt after police found more than 100 rocks of crack cocaine at his camp during a raid in 2005.
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