Overview
- Moises and Raquel Orduna-Rios were arrested on a federal complaint alleging conspiracy, transporting and harboring unauthorized aliens, employing unauthorized workers, and money laundering.
- Prosecutors say Orduna Plumbing employed about 253 people from 2022 to 2024 with only six confirmed authorized to work, while collecting some workers’ passports and placing them in overcrowded housing.
- Federal filings estimate roughly $74 million in customer revenue since 2022, with investigators alleging payroll to undocumented workers flowed through bank accounts controlled by the defendants.
- A multiagency probe documented 23 worker arrests in Buffalo, Rochester, and Charlotte, recovered a Feb. 1, 2025 message urging workers to limit visibility to law enforcement, and found nine undocumented workers living in a small Rochester residence.
- The case is part of DOJ’s Operation Take Back America, and the charged offenses carry up to 10 years in prison plus a $3,000 fine per unauthorized worker if convicted, with the defendants presumed innocent.