SAN JOSE, Calif.—A woman once accused of running a human-trafficking operation in her San Jose restaurants pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, bringing an end to a years-long case that initially charged her with 100 criminal counts. Nearly three years after federal agents raided the home of Paula Luna Alvarez and her husband, Carlos Del Carmen, prosecutors dropped nearly all of the charges, including money laundering, wire fraud and transporting illegal aliens, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
The couple reached a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit Social Security fraud. The judge sentenced them to five years of probation.
Prosecutors initially accused them of smuggling people from Mexico to work in their two restaurants, a successful business that Alvarez built from selling tamales out of a cart in a parking lot. Court documents filed by the FBI alleged the couple forced illegal immigrants to work 17-hour days and live in squalor.
The couple's attorney, George Benetatos, maintains the allegations were false and stemmed from disgruntled former employees, including one who was fired for selling fake Social Security cards out of a tamale cart.
"You wonder why they went after these people," Benetatos told the Mercury News. "This case should have had better judgment at some point in the investigation. Certain parts of the story were just fantastic."
The guilty plea stemmed from a number of

Information from: San Jose Mercury News, http://www.sjmercury.com