The State - News from Aug. 26, 1985

The breakup of a ring suspected of smuggling nearly 200 undocumented workers a week from Tijuana to a labor camp in Fresno County has resulted in an indictment against eight people. The federal grand jury in Fresno issued an indictment charging them with conspiracy to transport, conceal and harbor illegal aliens. The indictment stemmed from a raid Aug. 14 on a camp in rural Sanger in which seven people were arrested and 88 illegal aliens taken into custody. Officials said workers made contact with smugglers at a restaurant in Tijuana and paid up to $450 each to be moved across the border to safe houses in San Ysidro and Santa Ana before being taken to the Sanger camp. The illegal aliens then worked 60- to 70-hour weeks on farms for about $120 a week, of which they received half, the rest going to a labor contractor for shelter, food and smuggling fees.