Mexican citizen in Lexington admits illegally profiting from forced labor of others
A Mexican citizen living illegally in Lexington has admitted helping smuggle other people into the U.S. and threatening to kill one man if he didn’t work two jobs to pay off his debt.
Serafin Bayona, 35, pleaded guilty in federal court Jan. 15 to two charges of profiting from forced labor.
Bayona admitted he loaned money to people in Mexico to get into the U.S., coordinated the work to get them across the border, arranged for them to be driven to Lexington and then put them up in properties he owned.
Once they reached Lexington, Bayona charged the people for rent, transportation to work, cleaning, food, helping them get jobs and providing false identification documents, according to his plea agreement.
The plea agreement cited two victims who hired Bayona to pay a group of “coyotes” to get them into the U.S.
The deal required them to work every day and give their checks to Bayona, who charged them each $500 for rent, $300 for their phones, $500 for food and $500 for rides to and from work, according to the plea agreement.
Federal authorities said in a news release that the amounts people owed Bayona “resulted in an endless cycle of debt.”
After several months of “constant work,” one man told Bayona he couldn’t keep working without a rest, the plea agreement said.
Bayona put a pistol to the man’s head and threatened to kill him if he didn’t work two jobs to pay his debt, according to the plea agreement.
Bayona admitted he also threatened harm to family members of the two people in Mexico.
His plea agreement cited WhatsApp messages that included, “No matter where you or your family go I will find them,” and, “Prepare yourself because there is going to be nowhere for you to hide, not even your family in Mexico.”
The plea agreement covered charges involving two people, but witnesses said Bayona had taken part in getting many others into the U.S. illegally, according an affidavit by Isaac Robison, a special agent with the FBI.
Robison said one woman said she paid Bayona $10,000, and another said Bayona charged her more than $15,000 to get across the border and on to Lexington in January 2023.
The woman said she was given a code word in case she was stopped by Mexican cartels or U.S. border police “to ensure that U.S. authorities and cartel members would know that she went through Bayona to secure passage,” Robison said in the affidavit.
The woman said Bayona later charged her another $1,000 to get her a job in a factory.
The woman said she told Bayona at one point she wanted to go back to Mexico, but he told her if she left, he would send people to kill her mother in Mexico, according to the affidavit.
The witness said all her pay when she first got to Lexington went toward fees Bayona charged her, so she couldn’t pay down her original debt or send money to family in Mexico.
She said that others had told her they’d been under contract with him for more than a year and hadn’t been able to pay back their principal, according to the affidavit.
Bayona is to be sentenced in May.
If U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove accepts the plea, his sentence will be 11 years and three months in prison.
He also agreed to forfeit $52,287 and a Glock handgun that authorities seized from him.
This story was originally published January 20, 2025 at 11:00 AM.
