Indianapolis: Immigrants were held captive, police say

:grr: I fear for their safety.

"More than 20 people are possibly being held hostage in Indianapolis by a cross-country network that smuggled illegal immigrants into the U.S. from Meixco for a fee and then imprisoned them for more money, police say.

Police said they uncovered one of the smuggling ring's way stations on the city's Far Southside this week. They arrested three men and rescued one immigrant. But the other immigrants kept in a one-bedroom apartment have not been found, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said, and are still being held by the smugglers.

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For Manual Flores, 28, the brawl brought an end to a saga that began April 10 in Mexico. According to court records, he was among two dozen people so desperate to work in the United States that they each agreed to pay at least $1,500 to be smuggled into the country.
They began their journey with a two-day walk through remote parts of Mexico and into the United States. Once inside the country, they were forced into trucks, hauled to a house in Phoenix with blanket-covered windows and told they could not leave.

That's when the smugglers raised their price. Court records say a man named Oscar pointed a gun at Flores and demanded $2,500. Flores persuaded a cousin in Mexico to wire him $1,500...."

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060505/NEWS01/605050505