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Over 60 undocumented immigrants are in federal custody after being caught this afternoon by Border Patrol agents The 63 immigrants were detained just north of Mission. The stash house was found by local and federal authorities working together on Taylor and 6 Mile Line. Border Patrol said an investigation from a previous smuggling case lead them to this bust. San Juan police assisted the agents around noon when they found the immigrants packed inside a house. Two of the people detained are persons of interest, meaning they could be smugglers themselves. Authorities the condition of the stash house was better...

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- At least 40 suspected illegal immigrants were taken into custody at a Glendale home overnight. The alleged drop house is near 65th and Olive avenues. According to public records, the home is owned by a Scottsdale woman. Few details about the incident were immediately available. Video from the scene showed dozens of men sitting on the curb in the dark while investigators gathered evidence and information. While neither Glendale officers nor agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement would speak to media on the scene, a neighbor told 3TV he had no idea the home was a drop...

Two-thirds of the 93 people arrested during the first day of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's latest crime and immigration sweep were believed to be illegal immigrants. The two-day sweep is being run in an area of west Phoenix with a high number of "drop houses" where smugglers hide immigrants who have been sneaked into the country. It's the 15th sweep that Arpaio has conducted since early 2008. During the sweeps, deputies flood an area of a city _ in some cases heavily Latino areas _ to seek out traffic violators and arrest other alleged lawbreakers. Critics say deputies racially...

Two different law enforcement agencies arrested dozens of undocumented workers at several drop houses in the West Valley on Wednesday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents processed up to 60 immigrants at a home near 51st Avenue and Glendale Road. Neighbors told ABC15 this house was busted about three weeks ago for the same thing.

Ariz. takes aim at migrant 'drop houses' By JACQUES BILLEAUD, Associated Press Writer 47 minutes ago State officials are picking new targets in their efforts to stop illegal immigration in Arizona: the "drop houses" where human smugglers hold customers until they pay up. Gov. Janet Napolitano, addressing the opening day of the Legislature on Monday, said the state should go after property managers who knowingly rent homes to smugglers. "Strengthen the law, so we can get to that middleman," said the Democratic governor, who offered no specific suggestions on how the state should hold such rental agents accountable. Napolitano posted...

Border Patrol finds fifth stash house in two weeks FROM STAFF REPORTS Yuma sector U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 13 illegal aliens Friday from the fifth drop house agents have discovered in two weeks. At 11:45 a.m., agents working off a tip went to the 1200 block of 3rd Street and found one suspected smuggler and 12 illegal aliens inside two small travel trailers in a trailer park. The people had been hiding for one week while waiting to be smuggled farther into the U.S., according to a Border Patrol release. None of the illegal aliens required medical attention. Three...

An anonymous tip Thursday morning led Border Patrol agents to a Yuma home where they found and detained 93 illegal immigrants from Mexico, the patrol said in a news release. The home on 1st Street is a suspected drop house, where the aliens were being kept until they could be smuggled to locations in the interior of the United States, the release said. Many of aliens were women and children who said they had been in the house for two days, the patrol said. The inside of the house was described by the patrol as sweltering and filthy, with garbage...

On the journey into the United States, a stay in one of Houston's "drop houses" often is the last stop illegal immigrants make before their lives begin in this city. It's a dehumanizing experience. Immigrants — treated as cargo — are known as pollo, or chickens. They're often held at gunpoint and forced to subsist for days or weeks in stifling and filthy conditions before their smuggling debts are paid. These houses are all over Houston, say federal authorities, who find at least one a week. A shootout last week in southwest Houston underscored how problematic these illegal transfer sites...

Authorities said two victims were recovering from gunshot wounds after a shooting at an alleged immigrant smuggling house Tuesday morning. The house was allegedly being used in an illegal immigrant smuggling operation. Houston police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials responded to the scene at 9011 Sandpiper in southwest Houston around 9 a.m. after residents reported hearing gunshots in the neighborhood. Two people were wounded, but police aren’t sure who shot them. The victims were transported to Ben Taub and Memorial Herman Hospital. Their conditions aren’t known. Police said a bullet broke through a window at a house across the...

LOS ANGELES - More than 70 undocumented immigrants were found in the home at 2204 117th St. Friday morning, including at least four suspected smugglers, according to Virginia Kice, an ICE spokeswoman. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, backed up by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department SWAT team, set off diversionary grenades and stormed a so-called drop house at 6 a.m. Women and children were among the group, which included citizens from Nicaragua, El Salvador and Ecuador. ....

LOS ANGELES - Police investigating a report of a kidnapping found 27 suspected illegal immigrants who had been held by smugglers at a small hotel. Authorities were tipped off Tuesday by a 911 call that people were being held at the Polaris Hotel in South Los Angeles, said police Sgt. Michael Parlor. The suspected smugglers fled before police arrived with their lights and sirens on, Parlor said. Officers who went to the hotel to investigate a possible kidnapping found 13 people crammed into one motel room and 14 in another, he said. "We got food for everyone. It looks like...