Thursday 20 March 2014

Police uncover human trafficking ‘stash house’


Over 100 suspected victims of human trafficking have been rescued from a house in Houston, Texas.


When officers entered the property they were confronted with "a large, large group of people, some sitting on top of one another, in very confined spaces".


A Houston Police Department spokesman said that dozens of the victims were dressed only in underwear.


The conditions were filthy and there were bin bags full of old clothes scattered everywhere.


The people had been living in a number of small rooms, with access to just one toilet and no hot water.


Police made the horrific discovery during a search for a 24-year-old woman and her two children who had been reported missing by concerned relatives.


The police spokesman said: "They yell out the woman's name to see if she is in there, and she emerges with the two children. They're OK."


In total investigators found 94 men and 15 women, along with the missing mother and her two children.


Many of the women had been in the house for up to four days. One woman told police she had been there for more than two weeks.


An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said it had been five years since officials uncovered a Houston house with this many people inside.


In 2012 a house with 86 people was discovered.


The victims, all of whom have been taken into custody and are being questioned, are mainly from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador.


Police have arrested five men in connection with the discovery.



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