Crime & Safety
Couple Used Girls As Slaves In Aurora: Prosecutors
Two people are facing federal charges after prosecutors alleged they made two young girls give them all the money they earned.
AURORA, IL — Two girls were used as slaves in Aurora after a Guatemalan couple illegally brought them into the country last year, according to federal charges filed last week in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
Santos Teodoro Ac-Salazar and Olga Choc Laj are facing federal forced labor charges after federal prosecutors alleged they made two young girls from Guatemala work various jobs and turn over all the money they earned as payment for smuggling them into the U.S., according to court records.
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Prosecutors allege Choc Laj and a teenage girl traveled to Florida in February 2019, three months before Ac-Salazar arrived in the country with a younger girl, the records state.
Choc Laj and the teenage girl moved to Aurora last year after the girl was told she could no longer work as a roofer in Florida because she was too young, prosecutors said in the federal indictment.
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The girl, now 17, told authorities she was also forced to take jobs as a cleaner and factory worker to pay Choc Laj, Ac-Salazar and the couple’s smugglers, according to court records.
The girl told authorities she wasn’t allowed to attend school and couldn’t leave the couple’s Aurora home before paying off her debts. Prosecutors also allege the couple kept the younger girl, who is now 11, from attending school until child-welfare officials visited their home in Aurora.
Both girls were made clean the couple’s home and care for the couple’s baby after he was born in October 2019, prosecutors allege.
Choc Laj told authorities the teenage girl was her cousin, while Ac-Salazar said the younger girl was his adopted daughter, but both girls said they didn’t know either of them before traveling to the U.S., court records state.
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Ac-Salazar pleaded guilty in September in Kane County court to aggravated battery of a child under 13, according to a report by the Chicago Sun-Times. He received a sentence of about eight months, which he had already served between his arrest and his guilty plea, the report states. Ac-Salazar is now being held by immigration officials.
Choc Laj, 31, has been in the Kane County jail since February for an aggravated battery charge, according to court records. Choc Laj is due to next appear in court Nov. 12. Her bail is set at $200,000.
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