\u201cYou have to keep in mind that they don\u2019t speak English, they don\u2019t know their rights, they are migrant workers and the people connecting them to jobs don\u2019t check to see if the jobs are legal or not,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n
Sanchez said group members thought what they were doing was perfectly fine because it was all taking place in greenhouses and motels in plain sight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the probable cause statement, it even said that they just opened the door for law enforcement and then kept working,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t think they were doing anything wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trial attorney for the Law Offices of the Public Defender Nicole Hall heard about the incident and decided on her own to take action apart from the department.<\/p>\n
Hall said when law enforcement stepped in, they kept trimming the buds off the marijuana plants.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you knew that you were doing something illegal, you\u2019re going to scatter, right?\u201d Hall said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to stop what you\u2019re doing. But they didn\u2019t even stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a probable cause statement, written by Farmington Police Department Detective J. Barreto, he said he knocked on the door of one of the hotel rooms, and when one of the Chinese men opened the door, Barreto could see \u201clarge amounts of marijuana.\u201d Barreto also said he saw a man with scissors and ordered him to put them down.<\/p>\n \u201cAs he was placing the scissors on the ground, the other occupants of the room had scissors in their hands and were actively trimming the marijuana plants inside the room,\u201d the probable cause statement written by Barreto said.<\/p>\n When Barreto went into another room, he said a man opened the door with scissors and tried to \u201cconceal himself.\u201d The officers removed the man and detained him for the officers\u2019 safety \u201cdue to him attempting to conceal himself behind the door while holding the scissors.\u201d<\/p>\n The other occupants of the room continued to trim just as the others did in the first room.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other occupants of the room appeared to not care that we were asking them to exit the room,\u201d Barreto said in the probable cause statement. \u201cI observed several individuals still cutting weed plants with red scissor handles.\u201d<\/p>\n Officers cleared out about a dozen rooms that either stored the plants or were working rooms, and gathered the 17 people.<\/p>\n Of the 17, 16 were charged with trafficking a controlled substance (manufacturing), a second-degree felony; distribution or possession with intent to distribute, a fourth-degree felony; and conspiracy to commit distribution of controlled substances, a fourth-degree felony. The 17th man had more charges against him because the motel rooms were in his name.<\/p>\n Sixteen of the cases were dismissed on or right after Nov. 23 \u2013 more than a month after the initial bust. The final case involving the man who had the hotel rooms in his name was not dismissed until April 26. Hall said she believes the charges were dropped because of the state\u2019s move to legalize marijuana.<\/p>\n The 17 initially stayed in jail for five days before they were released with conditions. Among those conditions, they were not allowed to leave San Juan County, New Mexico, according to managing attorney for the Law Offices of the Public Defender Sarah Field, who added the people were all \u201cvictims of the worst of our society.\u201d<\/p>\n A letter from Field on behalf of the labor trafficking victims to the New Mexico Crime Victims, an organization that helps bring reparations to victims of crimes, said many attorneys representing the clients requested that their clients be allowed to return to their homes out of the state.<\/p>\n \u201cThe court outright denied the request and required our clients to remain in San Juan County where they had no food, shelter, transportation \u2026 .\u201d Field wrote. \u201cUltimately, after long discussions with the prosecution, the state agreed to file dismissals. \u2026 However, they still suffered arrest, conditions of release and criminal prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n The group was recognized as labor trafficking victims and were provided some reparations, Sanchez said. Those reparations were for lost wages while they were told to remain in New Mexico and couldn\u2019t find other work from Oct. 11 to Nov. 23.<\/p>\n Since then, however, Sanchez said members of the group have expired work visas and need help reinstating them. They have also lost job opportunities because Google searches return only information about their arrests but not the clearing of their names.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it hadn\u2019t been for the public defender flagging this case, there\u2019s 17 people who would have just gone off to prison and disappeared with no voice and no rights,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cSo I am thankful, first of all, that it didn\u2019t happen that way and that I met (Hall). But it is scary to think about how many times in this country and how many places where that really does happen \u2013 where a victim doesn\u2019t have a voice and no one is aware of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n Sanchez said the people in charge of the operation have still not been held responsible. Spokesman for the FBI Frank Fisher said the investigation is ongoing, but he could confirm that no other arrests have been made.<\/p>\n The people identified as having been trafficked, excluding the man who put the motel rooms in his name, are: Bi Xuan Xie, Qi You Li, Ji Hua Kan, Xiao Xia Si, Chungui Xiong, Chunying Haung, Wen Chun Wei, Siqing Qin, Qinliang Wang, Shuang Fa Jing, Pin Hui Gu, Hao De Tan, Jing Jiao Qin, Zhi Qiang Tan, Jing Ming Qin and Wei Lian Jiang.<\/p>\n