COLUMBIA, TENNESSEE - Federal court documents show two men arrested in early April led a multistate smuggling ring that placed Eastern European immigrants in janitorial jobs in the United States. <br>
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Michal Morafka, 30, and Miroslav Vybihal, 33, have been charged in federal court in Chattanooga with harboring illegal aliens. <br>
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Authorities said the men housed and employed hundreds of illegal Czech, Russian and Ukrainian immigrants to work in stores in Columbia, Chattanooga and Maryville, along with Columbus, Ga., and Branson, Mo. <br>
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Morafka and Vybihal were in the United States without valid visas and had failed to pay taxes on their workers' salaries, court records show. <br>
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The men had purchased a cleaning service in February from Gasiewska Miroslawa Robison, 45, alias Mira Marta Robison, Immigration and Naturalization Service records show. <br>
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Robison, the name the woman used between 1996 and February, is accused in a federal indictment of recruiting and harboring illegal immigrants for financial gain and inducing them to get fake IDs and remain in the United States. <br>
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Robison, who was born in Poland but is legally in the United States, fled before April 23, when a grand jury in Chattanooga returned the 10-count indictment. She is considered a fugitive and an INS wanted poster says she was last seen in California. <br>
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The two men are currently being held at Silverdale Penal Farm in Chattanooga. <br>
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Federal agents said Morafka's wife, Pavolina, 29, has been released from federal detention and will return to the Czech Republic with her two children. Morafka's brother-in-law, Roman Polacek, 27, is being detained in Chattanooga as a material witness.
