Former Owner of Inca’s Secret Restaurant Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges

Harrisonburg, VIRGINIA – A pair of Harrisonburg residents, who formerly owned and managed a Peruvian-themed restaurant in the city, pleaded guilty yesterday in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Harrisonburg to federal harboring charges, Acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle announced.

Maria Rosalba McTague Alvarado, 49, and her son, Felix Adriano Chujoy, 29, each pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to charges related to the harboring and employment of undocumented immigrants.

Alvarado pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of harboring undocumented immigrants and two counts of employing undocumented immigrants. Chujoy pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and abetting the employment of undocumented immigrants. Both defendants will be sentenced on January 31, 2017.

According to evidence presented at yesterday’s guilty plea hearing by Assistant United States Attorney Heather L. Carlton, Alvarado and Chujoy, who are originally from Peru but have become naturalized United States citizens, owned and managed Inca’s Secret, a restaurant in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Alvarado admitted yesterday that during the time she owned Inca’s Secret, she allowed individuals whom she knew to be in the country illegally to work in the restaurant and live in her home.

Chujoy admitted yesterday that he aided and abetted Alvarado in hiring and employing individuals at Inca’s Secret who he knew to be undocumented immigrant.

The investigation of the case was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Assistant United States Attorneys Jeb Terrien and Heather L. Carlton prosecuted the case for the United States.