A Vashon landscaper was arrested on human trafficking charges Thursday, March 30, after a dramatic early-morning law-enforcement raid on his Maury Island home and another nearby property.

The raid came three days after a federal grand jury in Seattle charged the landscaper, Jesus Ruiz-Hernandez, with a total of 10 felonies.

According to the March 27 indictment, Ruiz-Hernandez, 44, brought three undocumented adults to the U.S., illegally harbored and transported them for financial gain, and forced two of them to work for him by harming them or threatening them with harm.

One person forced to labor for Ruiz-Hernandez suffered “aggravated sexual abuse,” according to the indictment.

The felonies occurred between 2017 and 2021, the indictment says. It does not say where the violations occurred.

The case was investigated by the Seattle Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle.

The Federal Public Defender’s office in Seattle has not yet responded to The Beachcomber’s request to speak with the attorney who represents Ruiz-Hernandez.

Raid took place in early morning hours

Ruiz-Hernandez — who also is known as Christo Jesus Escobar Solaris, according to the indictment — is listed as the governor, or principal, of Brother Landscape Vashon LLC, which was incorporated in 2018, in state corporation records.

He purchased a home in 2021 in the 6100 block of Southwest 240th Street on Maury, according to county property records. That home was the focus of Thursday morning’s law-enforcement raid, along with a home about a mile away in the 4700 block of Southwest 244th Street.

On social media, neighbors on Maury said the area was swarming with dozens of law-enforcement officers from a number of agencies, including a SWAT team. A helicopter circled over the neighborhood, several neighbors wrote, and heavy concussive sounds were heard as the raid took place.

A resident of the neighborhood, Siobhan McComb, said in an interview that the operation began at about 7 a.m., and following it, approximately six police vehicles remained parked on 240th Street for several hours.

McComb described the Ruiz-Hernandez’s property as fenced and gated and containing several outbuildings and dwellings. She said that she believed numerous people lived on the property, including children.

She said she had asked an official on the scene if the children living at the residence were okay following the raid, and was told yes by that official, who gestured to an unmarked vehicle, indicating that the children had been taken out of the house and were in the vehicle.

The owner of the home that was raided on 244th Street is islander Christine Runyon, whose name is listed as Christine Manfredi on property records for the house.

In an interview, Runyan said had been paid by Ruiz-Hernandez for the past several years to provide lodgings in her home’s basement for rotating groups of workers. Runyon also said she had been told by Ruiz-Hernandez that the workers she had housed were documented, but said she had not checked further on their status as she had trusted Ruiz-Hernandez.

She called the raid “the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me” and also expressed concern for Ruiz-Hernandez’s children and neighbors who had been impacted by the operation.

In a statement Friday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle said that, while arresting Ruiz-Hernandez, law-enforcement officers determined he was harboring five workers who appear to be undocumented. An investigation into how they came to work for him is ongoing, according to the statement.

The 10-count indictment supersedes an earlier, less-serious one, handed down in November, that charged Ruiz-Hernandez with harboring, transporting and illegally bringing one adult to the U.S.

Ruiz-Hernandez was released pending trial days after the November indictment after his public defender argued successfully that Ruiz-Hernandez was not a safety or flight risk. A number of islanders, including his pastor, a retired law-enforcement officer, and several clients of his landscaping business, vouched for him, according to a court document.

Ruiz-Hernandez remained free until his arrest last week when U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler ruled he now poses a safety and flight risk. He is being held at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac, according to Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Crimes related to human trafficking have heavy consequences for both those who are victims and those who perpetrate the crimes.

“Undocumented people are particularly vulnerable to forced labor schemes because they believe they do not have the same basic rights as U.S. citizens,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. “In this case, the grand jury found that Mr. Ruiz-Hernandez sought to enrich himself by forcing undocumented workers to labor for him and that he benefited financially by bringing undocumented workers to Washington.”

The trial is scheduled for May 15. The most serious charge Ruiz-Hernandez faces, forced labor, is punishable by to up to 20 years in prison — or life in prison, if aggravated sexual abuse is found — and a $250,000 fine.