Illegal Immigrants Raped, Beaten by Smugglers, Man Says

An illegal immigrant from Mexico has told federal authorities he was forced to watch as up to 20 men raped and sodomized his aunt and girlfriend last week while the three were held hostage by smugglers in a Canoga Park apartment.

Between the sexual assaults, Angel Garcia said, the smugglers beat him and another man with wrenches. Both men were driven from the Roscoe Boulevard apartment to a remote area near Moorpark, in Ventura County, and dumped in a field. Garcia’s girlfriend, aunt and a male cousin were abandoned near the desert community of Brawley in Imperial County.

The details of the alleged ordeal were disclosed earlier this week in an affidavit filed in federal court and in interviews with law enforcement authorities.

Immigrants smuggled into Southern California are often held hostage at a “drop house” until their relatives, friends or prospective employers pay for their release. In this case, authorities said, the smugglers turned violent when the families couldn’t come up with the $1,200 demanded of each immigrant.

Eight men have been arrested in connection with the episode. Seven of them have been implicated in the rapes and beatings, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office said. Those allegations will be referred to local law enforcement agencies for prosecution.

Jim Hayes, who heads the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s anti-smuggling unit, said the suspects are believed to be members of an extended family active in smuggling immigrants across the border into California.

One of their trademarks, he said, is playing rough with illegal immigrants who cannot meet their demands for money.

Authorities said the girlfriend was examined at a hospital and found to have been raped and sodomized. She is now staying with relatives in Orange County. The aunt’s whereabouts are unknown.

Sheriff’s deputies found Garcia and the other male, took them to a hospital and called the INS.

A major break in the case came a few days after the alleged attacks while Garcia’s girlfriend was being interviewed by an INS agent at her relatives’ home, authorities said.

One of the suspects, Leonel Estudillo-Martinez, 21, telephoned her from the U.S. Border Patrol office in El Centro, where he and Jose Luis Martinez-Salazar, 22, were picked up for making an unauthorized crossing, authorities said.

Estudillo-Martinez asked her to forgive him, INS Agent Heath Thomas said in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court.

Estudillo-Martinez was then brought to Los Angeles. He identified Mario Arenas, 31, as the leader of the operation and led INS agents to the Canoga Park apartment, Thomas said. There the agents found suspect Ruben Amezcua-Casa, 24, who directed them to a house in Pacoima, where Arenas and the other suspects were holed up, Thomas said.

When the agents arrived, they saw three barefoot men being hustled by three other men from a garage to a minivan, Thomas said.

Arenas, who was seated in a car, turned on the engine and rammed an INS vehicle, the agents said.

Arenas and four other suspects were arrested there. They are Carlos Garcia-Serrano, 35; Oscar Lopez-Serrano, 24; Marcelino Flores-Lesama, 19; and Manuel Gonzalez-Garcia, 23. All are Mexican citizens.

All but Martinez-Salazar have been implicated in the rapes and beatings.

Meanwhile, Garcia, one of the victims, is recovering from a concussion, broken ribs, a fractured cheekbone, black eyes and injuries to his ears, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Shannon Wright. She said it appeared that the smuggler’s had “tried to rip off his ears with pliers.”

His friend, Francisco Rodriguez Acuna, remains at County-USC Medical Center. Wright said he was beaten with a plumber’s wrench and kicked repeatedly by someone wearing steel-tipped boots.

Arenas, the suspected ringleader, was indicted earlier this year in a similar incident involving alleged sexual assaults and beatings of illegal immigrants. He eluded capture at the time.

Wright said Arenas also was implicated in a third case in which witnesses told of being raped, but he was never indicted because he had fled the country.