57 Detained in Crackdown on Smuggling of Aliens
Immigration agents detained 55 suspected illegal immigrants and two alleged smugglers at Los Angeles International Airport in a crackdown on alien smuggling, authorities said Friday.
The sweep late Thursday and early Friday raised to 153 the number of people arrested while trying to fly to the East from Los Angeles, said Ben Davidian, head of the Western office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The 48 men and seven women were apprehended at ticket counters and waiting areas at the airport, Davidian said. Those arrested held tickets to New York, Chicago, Newark, Atlanta and other cities, he said. He would not say which airlines were being used. The INS arrested 98 suspected illegal aliens, including two Romanians, on Wednesday and Thursday when two Eastern Airlines flights to New York City made scheduled stopovers in Atlanta.
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