24 charged with forcing migrants into `modern-day slavery’

WAYCROSS, Ga. (AP) — Federal authorities say they’ve broken up a criminal enterprise that illegally brought migrant workers into the U.S., took their money and forced them to perform farm labor in conditions likened to modern-day slavery. Federal prosecutors for the Southern District of Georgia indicted 24 people in U.S. District Court, and said the case freed more than 100 people. They say many were forced to dig up onions with their bare hands and lived in cramped trailers, often without food or clean water. Authorities say two workers died and one was repeatedly raped. A federal grand jury indicted the 24 defendants on charges of forced labor and other criminal counts in October. The indictment was sealed until late November.