Homestead subtractor Agustin Mendez-Vazquez has been sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to slavery. Mendez-Vazquez,44, received the highest sentence of six years for “conspiracy to provide and maintain forced labor.”

He committed the offense by giving migrant worker labor to crews and farms as a “nicolero”,term for the nickel commision most labor subcontractors get for each bucket of produce by the workers he provides. Occasionally, instead of paying migrant workers directly, the farms give their wages to the niclero to distribute the funds that workers are owed. This action is illegal because most of the power is given to the nicolero.

Mendez-Vazquez admitted that he and others “intimidated and physically assaulted a manual farm worker who had recently arrived from Mexico. Other incidents of intimidation include making loans or keeping immigration documents like passports, so workers were bonded to Mendez-Vazquez’s labor.