LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) — What looked like a booming Metro Detroit plumbing business was, according to federal investigators, something else entirely: a nationwide operation staffed largely by illegal immigrants and directed from a $1.5 million home in Plymouth Township.
Federal court records unsealed Nov. 18 outline the case against Moises Orduna-Rios, 36, and his wife, Raquel Orduna-Rios, 30—the owners of Orduna Plumbing. Prosecutors say the couple turned the company into a sprawling, under-the-table labor pipeline stretching from Michigan to New York, the Carolinas, Ohio, and Tennessee.
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Agents estimate the firm employed 253 workers. Only six were confirmed to be in the country legally, however. The rest, federal officials say, were primarily Mexican and Nicaraguan nationals working without authorization.
According to the complaint, Orduna Plumbing pulled in $74 million in revenue since January 2022, much of it on the backs of workers housed in crowded rentals and hotel rooms and paid $800–$1,500 per week. Agents say the couple collected many workers’ passports and shifted crews from state to state to meet demand.
The investigation shifted in February when agents traced several workers to a rental home in Rochester, New York. Inside the 1,500-square-foot house, they found nine immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, sleeping on mattresses spread across the bedroom floors.
Agents seized cellphones, mail addressed to “Orduna Plumbing Inc.,” company credit cards, and employee badges.
The case was made public after agents arrested 23 company workers across several states. The prosecution is being handled out of the Western District of New York, where the investigation first broke open.
Investigators say the workforce broke down this way:
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• 112 workers were confirmed to be in the U.S. illegally.
• 28 workers had overstayed visas or held visas that did not permit employment.
• 107 workers had no records in federal immigration databases—an absence agents say is most consistent with illegal entry and no prior encounters with immigration officials.
The Orduna-Rios couple was charged with conspiracy, transporting illegal immigrants for private financial gain, and money laundering, according to The Detroit News—crimes that can carry decade-long sentences. They appeared in federal court in Detroit on Nov. 18 and were released on bond.