INS Scoops Up 51 Alien Ice Cream Vendors

Fifty-one illegal aliens smuggled from Mexico to sell frozen fruit bars and ice cream from pushcarts were arrested in a City of Commerce warehouse Wednesday and held for deportation, authorities said.

The aliens, several of whom had been brought into the country in the past week, were sleeping in a loft and on the floor of the warehouse when authorities entered shortly after midnight, said Ernest Gustafson, director of the Los Angeles district office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

“There were beer cans strewn all over the place and mattresses on the floor and in the lofts,” Gustafson said. “Some had arrived in the country recently, but others had been working on and off there for the past few years.”

Gustafson said INS officials were alerted by sheriff’s deputies who had been summoned to the building by an anonymous caller reporting a disturbance there.

The operators of the vending company were being sought, he said. Signs on the pushcarts identified the business as Pinguino Fruit Bar Co., but a sign on the building said Guadalajara Natural Fruit Bar Co.

Gustafson said the 50 adult males and one teen-ager arrested are all Mexican nationals.

It was the second apprehension of illegal aliens in 24 hours. Fifty-four others were discovered early Tuesday morning packed “like sardines” in a truck trailer near Los Angeles Harbor. Port police discovered 12 women, also illegal aliens, in a van parked nearby.