Two charged with concealing aliens own Berryville restaurant

FAYETTEVILLE -- Two Springdale people, Gema Rivera-Soto, 42, and Honorato Pedroza, 47, operators of Taqueria Navidad in Berryville, were sentenced on May 29 in federal court to concealing illegal aliens by providing them with employment at Taqueria Michoacan Restaurants at three locations in northwest Arkansas.

The two were each sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $15,000 and serve three years of court supervision after release from prison.

Their convictions, however, have little, if any, connection with their business in Berryville, according to Deborah Groom, first assistant U.S. Attorney with the Western District of Arkansas in Fort Smith.

Ms. Rivera-Soto pleaded guilty on Oct. 9, 2007, to one count of harboring and shielding illegal aliens. The following day Pedroza pleaded guilty to the same charge.

During the investigation conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Springdale, Rogers and Lowell police departments, it was determined that the two were paying some employees who were illegal aliens in cash.

The two originally faced four felony counts of harboring aliens and money laundering, along with identity theft for using counterfeit Social Security and resident alien documents.

In the course of the investigation, 15 Mexican adults and four juvenile Mexicans, along with two adults from El Salvador, were arrested.

Rivera-Soto and Pedroza transferred in excess of $337,000 out of the United States, much of it coming from the illegal immigrants.

The two are expected to be deported upon completion of their sentences.