Tyson Foods, former managers start court fight against smuggling indictment

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Posted 12:02PM on Thursday, January 24, 2002

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Six former Tyson Foods Inc. managers surrendered to federal authorities Thursday and planned to plead innocent to charges of conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants to work at 15 chicken processing plants in nine states. The executives arrived separately at the U.S. Marshal's office, where they were fingerprinted and photographed. A defense attorney said all six managers would plead innocent at an afternoon court hearing before U.S. Magistrate Bill Carter. Federal prosecutors in a Dec. 11 indictment accused Arkansas-based Tyson and the former managers of conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants to plants in Tennessee, Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia. Robert Hash, vice president of the company's retail fresh division, and Gerald Lankford, former human resources manager of the retail fresh division, are charged, as are three former managers at the Shelbyville, Tenn., plant: Truley Ponder, Spencer Mabe and Jimmy Rowland. Keith Snyder, a Noel, Mo., plant manager, is also indicted. Snyder is a former night shift supervisor at Shelbyville, according to the indictment. Federal authorities, who investigated Tyson for 2 1/2 years, said a Tyson manager once told an undercover agent that the company would pay $200 for each "illegal Mexican alien delivered." The company aided the immigrants by obtaining false documents so they could work at Tyson plants "under the false pretense of being legally employable," according to the indictment. Prosecutors also said the managers hoped the cheap labor would help Tyson cut costs and meet production goals. Prosecutors have said a conviction on a charge of importing illegal immigrants for commercial advantage can carry a five-year mandatory minimum sentence, with no chance of parole. Tyson executives have accused federal prosecutors of "improper racial stereotyping." They also contend the government's case involves a few managers who were "acting outside of company policy." A Tyson executive also said the indictment followed the company's refusal to pay the government a $100 million penalty to avoid trial on the conspiracy charges. Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra called the Tyson remarks "rubbish." Amador Anchondo-Rascon, a former employee at Tyson's Shelbyville plant, pleaded guilty as part of a sentencing deal with prosecutors. Anchondo-Rascon, 43, has been meeting privately with federal agents and is prepared to testify at any Tyson trial. His sentencing is set for May 20. Anchondo-Rascon, who owns a grocery store in Shelbyville, told a federal judge that he smuggled illegal immigrants into the United States to work for Tyson and provided them with fraudulent identification. Shelbyville, a rural town 100 miles northwest of Chattanooga, is home to Tennessee's highest concentration of Hispanics, according to 2000 census figures. Tyson, one of the world's largest poultry, beef and pork processors, has 120,000 employees and had sales last year of $23.8 billion.