2 ministry members plead in forced labor case

SAN DIEGO >> Two members of a Southern Californiabased ministry that allegedly forced homeless people and drug addicts to panhandle, stole their welfare benefits and held them against their will pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges.

Jose Gaytan and Sonia Murillo entered pleas to conspiracy to commit forced labor and benefits fraud. They could face up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

“The most vulnerable among us are entitled to the protection of the law,” U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer said in a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.

Gayton, 47, and Murillo, 51, operated group homes for Imperial Valley Ministries headquartered in the small desert community of El Centro. The ministry’s “express purpose is to ‘restore’ drug addicts at faithbased rehabilitation group homes and raise money to open churches in other cities to do the same,” the statement said.

The ministry became so successful that it established a network of about 30 affiliate churches across the country. Locations included

Southern and Northern California cities; Charlotte, North Carolina, Brownsville, Texas, Phoenix; Las Vegas; Oklahoma City; St. Louis; Louisville, Kentucky; and Memphis, Tennessee.

The FBI raided the El Centro ministry in 2018. Gaytan and Murillo were among a dozen people charged in the case. Former ministry pastor Victor Gonzalez of Brownsville, his wife, Susan

Christine Leyva, and eight others have pleaded not guilty to federal charges.

Authorities said those who were recruited for the ministry’s program were told they would receive free food and shelter and were falsely promised that they would be given resources to return home.

Instead, some were held against their will, their identification documents and food stamp benefit cards were seized and they were forced to peddle candy for change for up to 54 hours a week to raise money for the ministry, according to prosecutors.

Ministry members allegedly told people that they would not receive transportation home, that loved ones had rejected them and they must stay because only God loved them.