Monroe man pleads guilty after forcing woman smuggled into U.S. to do unpaid labor

EVERETT — A Monroe man pleaded guilty Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Seattle to the federal felony of harboring an alien for financial gain. Initially, the 57-year-old was charged with four federal felonies related to his treatment of a woman smuggled into the country at his direction.

Rangel Ramirez-Manzano pursued a long-distance relationship with the victim, a woman he had known when she was younger and who lived in his hometown in Mexico, according to a United States Department of Justice press release. He urged the victim to move to the United States to be his girlfriend.

Ramirez-Manzano paid smugglers $17,000 to bring the woman across the border into Southern California, the release said. After arriving in Washington, he forced the victim to do hard labor for his landscapin