Alleged smugglers sexually assaulted immigrants, officials say

An immigrant discovered in a South Los Angeles drop house Wednesday told authorities she was impregnated by one of the smugglers, and witnesses reported that several other women were sexually assaulted, immigration officials said today.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents also found two weapons in the house, a 22-caliber pistol and a stun gun, which the immigrants said were used to control and threaten them.

Sixty illegal immigrants, mostly from Central America, were found in a single-family home on South Normandie Avenue, living among piles of trash and rotting food. They included 40 Salvadorans, seven Hondurans, nine Guatemalans, one Nicaraguan, three Mexicans and a toddler who is a U.S. citizen.

Agents were executing a search warrant as part of an ongoing human-smuggling investigation.

Several of the people will probably face criminal charges for their involvement in the smuggling, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for ICE. The agency is continuing to investigate whether there is a connection to a large-scale human-smuggling ring raided in February in Los Angeles that allegedly grossed $6 million to $18 million annually transporting about 5,000 undocumented immigrants.

Agents spent all day Wednesday interviewing the immigrants, who reported being held against their will and paying between $5,000 and $7,000 in smuggling fees to be led across the border in Arizona. One person reported paying $12,000.

“They had some pretty harrowing accounts,” she said.

Among the immigrants were three toddlers, who are being held with their mothers at a private shelter, and six teenagers.

anna.gorman@latimes.com