BARTOW COUNTY, Ga. — The Federal Bureau of Investigation released new video of agents raiding eight locations in Bartow County Wednesday.
Agents suspect a business owner there brought hundreds of people to the U.S. from other countries and forced them to work at his factory in Cartersville with low pay and harsh conditions.
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Deputies booked Zhu Chen into the Bartow County Jail Wednesday morning as the FBI, Homeland Security, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and Bartow County Sheriff’s Office searched his manufacturing business.
According to the Secretary of State’s website, Chen owns Wellmade. It’s a flooring manufacturing company founded in 2019, according to licensing records.
“The conditions were terrible. The way they treated their employees was terrible,” former employee Lacortney Ware said.
Ware is a local who worked there until 2022.
“They had us cutting the flooring with our hands. So, we would leave with cuts on our hands. They didn’t give us the proper gloves,” Ware said.
She was able to leave and transition to the nursing industry.
Channel 2 Action News compared her descriptions to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s records. Inspectors cited at least nine violations at Wellmade since 2022 like amputation and entrapment hazards, flying chips and sparks, and potential hearing loss.
To read the reports in detail, click here.
Dave McCleary works for a metro Atlanta nonprofit that fights human trafficking named Rotarian Action Group Against Slavery.
He said federal agents will try to connect workers from other countries to housing and legal aid.
“They try to get them help initially because they have been trafficked from other countries, and, most cases, they’re not criminals,” McCleary said. “They just were brought here for an unfair wage and a lot of cases not paid.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not elaborate on whether the workers will face deportation.
Chen was still in jail Wednesday night. Channel 2 Action News reached out to attorneys connected to his company on the Georgia Secretary of State website to try to hear his side. We are waiting for a response.
Locals who used to work at Wellmade want to hear it.
“Everybody affected should take action,” Ware said.
Federal agents said once they finish gathering evidence, they will give it to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and staff there will decide whether to prosecute Chen.
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