A Kissimmee man is sentenced to federal prison for having a man he helped smuggle into the country driven from Wisconsin to Florida against his will to work off a debt.

Gerardo Hernandez Anselmo, 34, of Kissimmee, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 30 months in federal prison for illegally transporting an alien. Prosecutors said Hernandez Anselmo and his wife helped a man identified as R.E. enter the country illegally, then had him driven from Abbotsford, Wisconsin to Kissimmee against his will to work off the debt he owed them. The case surfaced after a relative reported R.E. missing from his Wisconsin job in June 2022; R.E. later identified Hernandez Anselmo and a co-defendant as the men who drove him to Florida. Hernandez Anselmo pleaded guilty in June 2023, and the co-defendant, who was in the country illegally, was sentenced separately to time served and deported.