2 Accused of ‘Perverse’ Treatment of Migrants : Crime: Naked men found wandering the streets tell a tale of beatings and humiliation at the hands of smugglers.

After finding naked men on the San Diego streets and hearing screams from a nearby drop house, federal authorities arrested two illegal immigrants and alleged Thursday that the men were smugglers who beat and humiliated several other immigrants who could not pay to keep going north.

The two men, each charged Thursday in San Diego federal court with a sole felony count of concealing aliens, shaved the heads of their victims, allegedly at knife and gunpoint, federal prosecutors said. The victims were shaved in a swath down the left and right sides of the head, prosecutors said.

Immigration and Naturalization Service agents also were investigating allegations that the two men forced the victims into anal intercourse, INS spokesman Rudy P. Murillo said. “This kind of business personally just turns my stomach,” Murillo said. “It disgusts me.”

INS officials, who called the two men “perverse” in a statement announcing the arrests, said there had not been a similar incident in recent San Diego history. It is far more common for an illegal immigrant who complains of poverty en route to be beaten or hazed when no cash is forthcoming from relatives or friends at the end of the trip, which is usually Los Angeles, Murillo said.

Armando Hernandez Ramirez, 44, and Juan Guevara Morales, 27, both illegal immigrants from Mexico, were returned Thursday to the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown San Diego. U.S. Magistrate Leo S. Papas set bail at $30,000 apiece.

Authorities also held--as potential witnesses--eight illegal immigrants who they said had been beaten. Murillo said he had seen four of the eight, each of whom sported a partly shaven head and was “black and blue and sore.”

In all, authorities said, 26 illegal immigrants were linked to a two-building drop house in the 3500 block of Acacia Street, in a southern San Diego neighborhood near the intersections of Interstates 5 and 15. The 18 others were returned to Mexico, Murillo said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Sherri Walker called the case “very disturbing” and said further felony charges are likely. Bill Roberts, a deputy federal public defender who was assigned to the first court hearing, declined to comment.

Police were called about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday after three Latino men were seen wandering on nearby Highland Avenue, two of them naked and the third partly clothed. All three had partly shaved heads, according to court documents.

Suspecting the three men were illegal immigrants, San Diego police called Border Patrol agents. The three told Border Patrol agents that they were indeed undocumented migrants but had been beaten and knew the location of the house where they had been attacked, court documents said.

The three men led agents to the two-building Acacia Street residence, one at the back and one at the front of the lot, which Murillo said had been under surveillance for months by the INS. Agents had been waiting to gather enough evidence to obtain a warrant to search the houses, he said.

Inside the back building were 18 illegal immigrants, court files said. While knocking on the front door of the front building, agents heard “loud cries for help,” the files said.

Border Patrol agent Kelly Good entered the house and found five more illegal immigrants, each with a partly shaven head, court records said. Each of those five said they had been beaten and robbed, records said.

“Three hundred dollars was their going rate,” meaning the price the alleged smugglers charged for a ride north, Murillo said. “We have logs of all their clients and their names, all with $300 next to them,” adding that agents believe the hazing occurred after the alleged smugglers could not secure guarantees for payment upon arrival in Los Angeles.

“Up until now, they were just acting like your usual smugglers,” Murillo said. “There was nothing like this. There was no activity to suggest that what happened (Wednesday) night had happened before, or to suggest allegations of other kinds of abuse.”