LOS ANGELES
--
Federal agents raided a "drop house" in the South Los Angeles area Wednesday and detained 61 foreign nationals suspected of entering the country illegally, including six children, authorities said.
Agents went to the two-story, single-family home in the 10300 block of South Normandie Avenue about 6:30 a.m. and found the people living in "appalling" conditions, with trash piled throughout the residence, said Virginia Kice of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"We took about 60 undocumented aliens out of this residence right now. It's part of a larger, ongoing criminal investigation," said ICE Special Agent Frank Johnston.
Among those detained were three teenagers, along with a 2-year-old child and two year-old children, Kice said.
The home's occupants arrived in the Los Angeles area on Friday from four countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Ecuador, Kice said.
Johnston said that true to form in a drop house, living conditions inside were deplorable.
"It's a mess," Johnston said. "It's almost impossible to walk through it. I mean, just trash piled up everywhere."
Authorities were interviewing the people to determine what would happen to them, and were working with the appropriate consulates to try to ensure that the children would not be separated from their parents, Kice said.
Drop-house inhabitants are often forbidden to leave, officials said because smugglers don't want anyone to be tipped off to their status.
In previous cases, agents have seen doors that lock only from the outside and residents without shoes to prevent them from getting far on foot.
In this case, the veil of secrecy appears to have worked, said neighbors.
Ana Vera, who lives next door, said she has seen a couple of women in the sparse, dirt yard on occasion, but no one else.
Copyright 2008 by KNBC.com and KNBC (NBC4 Los Angeles). All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
