Thread: 3 Mexican men sent to prison for running smuggling stash hou

3 Mexican men sent to prison for running smuggling stash house
By MARY FLOOD-- HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Oct. 16, 2009, 1:13PM


Three Mexican brothers were sentenced to more than three years in federal prison today for keeping 17 smuggled illegal immigrants — held shoeless and in only underwear, sometimes at gunpoint — in a Houston stash house waiting for family to pay cash to free them.

Court records show that at the house in the 14000 block of Hillsboro, some men being held were given very little food and some women eventually agreed to have sex with their guards in return for showers, food, clothes or being able to sleep on a bed rather than the floor.

Sean McElroy, the assistant special agent in charge of investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston, said they break up dozens of stash houses like this here each year.

“Usually they take their clothes and give them very little food and water to keep them weak,â€

That's not a whole lot of jail time in my humble opinion. For kidnapping? I thought it would be a minimum of 10 years or so.

Ostrich