148 Immigrants Found Captive in South L.A. Homes

Los Angeles police found 148 immigrants held captive in two South Los Angeles houses Wednesday and arrested two suspected smugglers who were allegedly demanding payment for their release.

The discoveries are just the latest in a string of safe houses authorities have uncovered over the last two years. Officials say Los Angeles has emerged as a center of the human-smuggling business, with immigrants shipped from Latin America, across the border and to houses in Los Angeles. Often, they are eventually put on airplanes to other parts of the country.

Fifty-eight immigrants were discovered about 1 p.m. in the 800 block of West 80th Street. Ninety were discovered six hours later, about 20 blocks away in a house in the 100 block of West 59th Place.

Police discovered the first group after one of the prisoners escaped and called 911 from a nearby pay phone, said Los Angeles Police Det. Javier Lozano of LAPD’s 77th Street Division.

The caller told authorities people were being held in the house and then fled. Officers arriving at the house found bars on the rear windows and a large awning or canopy screening the back.

Police said they noticed a powerful odor when they entered the house and discovered men and women shoulder to shoulder in two locked bedrooms. The immigrants were from Ecuador and Mexico, officials said.

The house “was a hot oven, and these people were just crowded in,” Lozano said.

Two men, including one inside the house, were arrested.

The immigrants described being held for as long as a month as smugglers, called coyotes, demanded payments of $3,000 for their release. Police loaded the immigrants onto a bus for transfer into federal custody. Federal immigration officials have taken over the case, Lozano said. The house was rented.

Authorities declined to say how the second house was discovered, except to say that the circumstances were similar. Immigrants taken into custody at that house were from Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico.

At the first house, a single-story stucco home, police spent much of Wednesday questioning neighbors and the landlord. Residents said they had noticed nothing unusual at the property and were surprised to learn that so many people had been found inside.

“We thought the house was for rent. We never saw people there,” said Tyrine Soil, 19. “We’re shocked to hear that there were 60 people living in there.”

Other residents said that they saw only one man entering the house, and said that he sometimes carried bags of groceries.

Landlord Matthew Lux of Downey said he also had no idea that there were so many people in the house. “There was no noise, no smell,” Lux said. “I never saw 50 people until they brought them out.”

Lux said he rented the three-bedroom house in January to a couple with two children. The man and woman told Lux that they worked for a church. They did not have credit but they gave the name of a friend who backed their $1,300-a-month lease.

“They were great tenants,” Lux said. “They always paid in cash. They were always on time. I wish I had more tenants like them.”

Federal authorities have struggled to combat human smuggling. They have made arrests but they have found it hard to find the those who run the operations. Federal agents have begun patrolling Los Angeles International Airport as part of a crackdown launched last year.

Times staff writer Monte Morin contributed to this report.