Two former Arizona restaurant employees detained last year as part of a federal labour exploitation probe have pleaded guilty, according to authorities.
The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office stated last week that Luis Pedro Rogel-Jaimes and Iris Cristal Romero-Molina had acknowledged hiring and sheltering undocumented workers at four Colt Grill restaurants in northern Arizona and one in Alabama.
Rogel-Jaimes and Romero-Molina are Mexican nationals who were detained in Cottonwood in July 2025 while unlawfully staying in the country.
They will be sentenced later this month and are expected to be deported after serving their prison time, according to the sheriff’s office.
Explaining the Colt Grill allegations
Rogel-Jaimes and Romero-Molina were accused of colluding with Colt Grill owners Robert and Brenda Clouston to hire undocumented workers and avoid paying appropriate employment taxes.
They allegedly established a cleaning company in September 2022 to serve as a staffing agency for Colt Grill restaurants in Cottonwood, Prescott, Prescott Valley, Sedona, and Foley, Alabama.
Rogel-Jaimes and Romero-Molina allegedly hired the workers and paid them less than the minimum wage through R&R AZ Cleaning, which received funding from Colt Grill.
On May 27, 2025, a grand jury indicted the four defendants on conspiracy to transport illegal aliens, conspiracy to harbour illegal aliens, conspiracy to encourage and induce an alien to enter the United States illegally, and pattern and practice of knowingly employing unauthorised aliens.
According to federal authorities, they were arrested on July 15, 2025, together with numerous other undocumented persons.
The Cloustons’ trial was initially scheduled to begin Tuesday, but the start date was moved to Nov. 10, according to the Verde Valley Independent.
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