During a search for a women and her two children, Houston police found a house thought to be part of a human smuggling operation, with more than 100 people living in squalid conditions in a 1,500-square-foot space.
A house overflowing with more than 100 people presumed to be in the US illegally was uncovered just outside Houston on Wednesday, a police spokesman said.
The suspected stash house was found during a search for a 24-year-old woman and her two children, a 7-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy, that were reported missing by relatives late Tuesday after a man failed to meet them as planned at an undisclosed location on the city’s north side, said John Cannon, a spokesman for the Houston Police Department. Many of the people in home that authorities said appeared to be part of a human smuggling operation were dressed only in undergarments and they were sitting in in filthy conditions and surrounded by trash bags full of old clothing, Cannon said.
When police opened the door to the home they found “a large, large group of people, some sitting on top of one another, very confined spaces,” Cannon 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.”
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