62 Deaf Mexicans Freed From ‘Virtual Slavery’ in N.Y.

Scores of Mexicans who are deaf and unable to speak were “held in virtual slavery” while being forced to peddle trinkets for a man who kept their earnings, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said Saturday.

Police found 62 Mexicans, 10 of them children, crammed into two apartments divided into cubicles, Giuliani told reporters. The children ranged in age from 4 months to 7 years.

“This is a very disgusting and horrible situation that is going to emerge, I think, over the next day or two,” Giuliani said.

The mayor said at least one man, and possibly others, had been “holding a number of people in bondage, in virtual slavery.”

The adults--30 women and 22 men--also may have been physically and sexually abused, he said.

No charges were filed Saturday.

Police were questioning a man who was accused of being the boss of the operation, authorities said.

Authorities believe the Mexicans were brought into the United States and forced to sell trinket key chains on the streets, Giuliani said.

Four of the men escaped before dawn Saturday and went to a police station, said police spokeswoman Carmen Melendez.

They got a sergeant to understand “that they were put to work for little or no pay” and that their papers had been confiscated, she said.

Police then went to a house in the heavily Latino Jackson Heights section of Queens and found 44 people crammed into one apartment.

Eighteen other people were found in a second apartment nearby.

They all “seem to be in good health,” Melendez said.

Giuliani said the apartments were intended for seven or eight people each.

The rooms were divided into cubicles with mattresses on the floors, he said.

Authorities were using experts in Spanish sign language to interview the group.

The federal Immigration and Naturalization Service also was investigating, said Mark Thorn, an INS spokesman in New York.