A man convicted of smuggling Tongans into the United States and forcing them to work for his landscaping and construction businesses was sentenced yesterday to 26 years in prison.

Lueleni Fetongi Maka, a Tongan national who lives in the United States as a permanent resident, was convicted in December 2004 of 34 counts, including six counts each of human trafficking, involuntary servitude and forced labor.

Between May 2001 and January 2003, Maka used legitimate passports belonging to Hawai'i residents who resembled the seven Tongan men who were smuggled into the U.S.

The men, who worked from sunup to sundown at least six days a week, were housed in Nanakuli, where Maka operated a pig farm.

Maka, 54, of Waipahu, paid the men between $40 and $100 a week and sometimes paid nothing at all, according to court testimony.

Witnesses described the living conditions at the pig farm as "squalid," and said that Maka would beat them.

There was often no food, and the men sometimes resorted to killing stray dogs to eat, U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo said.