Police: 'Coyotes' tortured migrants
Brent Whiting
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 21, 2007 12:00 AM
Seven suspected "coyotes," or human smugglers, were arrested after sheriff's deputies raided a suspected drophouse in west Phoenix, where several undocumented immigrants were the victims of beatings and torture, authorities said Saturday.
A total of 54 people, including the suspects and four children, were rounded up at a house in the 9400 block of West Coolidge Lane, south of Camelback Road, said Capt. Paul Chagolla, spokesman for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
The raid was launched Friday, and the investigation at the home continued Saturday.At least seven people were tortured there, including a man who was assaulted, threatened with a gun and had a plastic bag placed over his head before it was submerged in an unflushed toilet, Chagolla said.
The man's pregnant spouse was taken to a hospital for treatment of a severe assault that likely will result in the loss of the unborn child, he said.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a former regional director for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said shoving a head into a toilet is a common method of torture in Mexico.
"It appears the illegal criminal element is entering this county and is bringing its methods of carnage," Arpaio said.
Chagolla said the west Phoenix house was void of furniture.
"Toilets were filled with human waste, and buckets were dispersed throughout the house as makeshift toilets," he said. "There was very little evidence of food in the home."
In the meantime, deputies are investigating other crimes in which at least five other immigrants had guns put to their heads as money was demanded by the coyotes, Chagolla said.
The seven smuggling suspects were booked in a Maricopa County jail on a variety of charges, including aggravated assault, kidnapping and illegal control of an enterprise.
Chagolla said the home is the third suspected drophouse within the past week that deputies have linked to the same smuggling ring, resulting in 80 arrests.
On Thursday, deputies raided a house in El Mirage, resulting in the arrests of three undocumented immigrants and a suspected immigrant smuggler.
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