3 Charged With Smuggling Immigrants

Federal authorities Tuesday charged three men with smuggling after three dozen illegal immigrants were found at a Watts home where police say they were being held as prisoners.

Officials learned of the immigrants’ captivity after Spanish-language KMEX-TV Channel 34 alerted authorities to hand-written notes stating that people were being held in the home against their will.

The case underscores how mounting enforcement pressure along the U.S.-Mexico border has forced illegal immigrants to turn increasingly to professional smugglers, or coyotes. Smuggling fees, in turn, have risen sharply as the smugglers use more circuitous, higher-risk routes to escort their undocumented charges into the United States.

“As the fee gets higher, the desperation among the aliens and the smugglers gets more intense,” said Richard K. Rogers, district director in Los Angeles for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Statements from those allegedly held captive indicated that the cost to be smuggled from the Mexican interior to Los Angeles now routinely exceeds $1,200--up from $500 or so just five years ago. Smuggled immigrants are typically held in rented “drop houses” until the fees are paid in full, usually by a relative, friend or employer already in the United States.

“Somebody has to come up with the money,” said Rogers, who added that scores of drop houses probably exist in and around Los Angeles.

Smuggled immigrants waiting for the cash to come through are often held in the kind of cramped, filthy surroundings found in the converted Watts garage on the 1700 block of East 112th Street where the group of 39--including the three alleged smugglers--was discovered, officials said.

Los Angeles police responded to the scene late Monday after being alerted by KMEX-TV.

Authorities said the immigrants, 31 men and five boys, had been given minimal amounts of food and drink by their captors. All were Mexican nationals. Some may have been held a week or longer, authorities said.

“There was a bowl of scrambled eggs that they passed around like popcorn and took handfuls out of,” said Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Jake Bushey. “And that was it.”

The fetid garage where most were held was still littered Tuesday with plastic bags filled with trash, broken bottles and other debris. An overpowering stench emanated from a tight space devoid of furniture, save a non-functioning stove. A rear room was apparently used as a lavatory. Empty plastic bottles of water and fruit drink were piled on the soiled floor of an adjacent storage unit.

“They were all stuffed into the same room. There wasn’t enough room to lie down,” Bushey said. “They were literally sitting back to back.”

Police also found an assault weapon at the scene, which they speculated might have been used to intimidate the prisoners.

Upon being released, one man, Juan Perez, told KMEX-TV that he hadn’t eaten in eight days, adding: “Right now, I’m only asking for some taquitos.”

Earlier Monday, a neighbor contacted KMEX and said he had found several hand-written pleas for help, said Jairo Marin, news director at the Univision network station.

“Please, call the police, I urge you,” said one note. “They have me kidnapped.”

The house is on a working-class street of new Latino immigrants and African Americans. Neighbors said they had been suspicious for some time of the considerable nocturnal activity at the wood-frame house, which has a jail-like appearance because of the iron bars covering the windows.

Vans arrived late at night and pulled into the driveway, which the residents said had recently been outfitted with a sliding iron fence. Men with cellular telephones emerged periodically from the vehicles and the house.

“With all the traffic coming through, I thought it was drugs,” said Rochelle Storey, 44, who has lived next door for 10 years. “We really didn’t know what was going on there, but we sure knew something wasn’t right.”

The landlord, who arrived at the scene Tuesday, gave his name as Ted Ross; county property records identify him as Fadel T. Ross. He said he was unaware of any wrongdoing until he arrived Tuesday to collect his $800 in monthly rent and was questioned by police and INS agents.

“It’s a shame, but sometimes the owner is the last one to know,” said Ross, who owns multiple properties in the neighborhood and is based in South Gate.

The three men arrested at the home and charged Tuesday were identified as Manuel Gonzalez-Pena, Armando Lopez-Hernandez and Antonio Flores-Zavala.