A Metro Detroit couple faces a decade in prison for allegedly employing hundreds of illegal immigrants through their multi-state, multi-million dollar plumbing company.
Moises and Raquel Orduna-Rios were charged in New York with running a national conspiracy to employ illegal immigrants through Orduna Plumbing, which has $74 million in estimated revenues since 2022, The Detroit News reports.
Federal records unsealed on Tuesday allege the couple employed about 253 people across New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, and Tennessee, but federal agents were able to confirm only six were living and working in the U.S. legally.
🚨A federal hammer just dropped on a $74 million plumbing empire built on human exploitation.
In Plymouth, Michigan, Moises Orduna-Rios, 36, and his wife Raquel, 30, stand accused of turning Orduna Plumbing Inc. into a coast-to-coast trafficking machine: 247 undocumented… pic.twitter.com/baFLtlJsZh
— Laszlo Varga (@LaszloRealtor) November 19, 2025
“The defendants collected the passports of the unauthorized aliens and housed them in overcrowded houses and hotel rooms,” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “It is estimated that between January 1, 2022, and August 7, 2025, Moises Orduna-Rios and Raquel Orduna-Rios generated approximately $74,000,000 in customer revenue. During the course of the investigation, U.S. Border Patrol agents and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 23 unauthorized aliens employed by Orduna Plumbing, in Buffalo, Rochester and Charlotte, North Carolina.”
Authorities allege Moises Orduna-Rios, 36, and Raquel Orduna-Rios, 30, managed the business from their $1.5 million Plymouth Township home, with messages between Moises and illegal immigrant employees that made it clear the couple was well aware they were not in the country legally.
“Gentlemen, with all the controversy that is going on, its better to get ready, drive the speed limit, limit yourselves gong to the store, only do minimal running of errands, and do not have any gatherings such as barbeques,” Orduna-Rios messaged in one group chat on Feb. 1.
This summer, Border Patrol agents searched a home in Rochester, New York and found nine illegal immigrants living in the small, sparsely furnished residence, WJBK reports.
“In the course of executing the search warrant, (agents) seized cellphones, mail addressed to ‘Orduna Plumbing Inc.,’ company credit cards, and employee badges labeled ‘Orduna Plumbing,'” U.S. Border Patrol Agent Justen Silva wrote in the criminal complaint cited by The News.
Authorities confirmed 112 of the 253 workers employed by Orduna Plumbing were in the country illegally, including 28 that had overstayed their visas or held visas that did not permit them to work.
The other 107 had no record in the U.S. immigration databases, according to The News.
“. . .[T]he most likely explanation for the fact that there were no records for any of the approximately 107 workers in immigration databases is that most are illegally present in the United States but have not had any interaction with immigration officials and therefore do not have any immigration records,” Silva wrote. “However, it is also possible that some of these workers are United States citizens who were born in the United States, never applied for a passport, and never traveled outside of the United States.”
Moises Orduna-Rios and Raquel Orduna-Rios both made initial appearances in federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan on Tuesday and were released with conditions to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pederson in the Western District of New York on Dec. 2.
They face charges of conspiracy to bring in, harbor, and transport unauthorized aliens, employment of at least 10 unauthorized aliens within a 12-month period, engaging in a pattern or practice of employing unauthorized aliens, and money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $3,000 for each illegal immigrant employed, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
