‘Slave Shop’ Discovered In California

Blanca Garcia said the whirring of sewing machines should have tipped her off to the sweatshop she passed unknowingly at least once a week.

“You could hear the drrr, drrr,” Garcia, a nearby resident, said Thursday outside the small apartment complex. “But I thought maybe a woman was just finishing some work. I never suspected this.”

State and federal agents raided the sweatshop early Wednesday and found 64 Thai nationals, eight of whom were arrested. Some of the remaining people said they were held in indentured servitude for years to work off immigration costs as garment makers.

Two other people were arrested later. The 10 suspects faced a myriad of charges ranging from violation of state minimum-wage regulations to federal smuggling laws.

“I think it’s terrible that they would do something like that. It’s just terrible,” said Emma Ansman, who lives in the neighborhood of well-kept, small homes.

The 56 workers were detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Los Angeles. It was not immediately clear whether they were all illegal immigrants.

Barbed wire was inconspicuously woven into the spiked security fence around the modern two-story, seven-unit complex in this suburb just east of Los Angeles. All seven apartments were used for the sweatshop.

More than $750,000 in cash and a large amount of gold jewelry and gold bars were found in a safe at the sweatshop, investigators said.

State investigators said workers stitched together garment parts that were probably completed at an associated shop in Los Angeles.

Agents said the workers told them they were forced to work day and night for $1.60 an hour to repay the cost of being transported from Thailand.

But several said they were not allowed to leave the complex even after their debts were repaid, said state Labor Commissioner Victoria Bradshaw. One woman told investigators she had worked at the site for seven years, leaving only once for a New Year’s Eve party.

The workers might be owed more than $2 million in extra wages, Bradshaw said.

“It’s hard to imagine living like that,” she said. “They basically worked from 7 in the morning until midnight every day. They slept on mats on the floor and were forced to buy food from their captors.”

State and local officials have stepped up investigations of illegal garment makers in recent years.

Illicit operations like the one exposed in El Monte hurt legitimate apparel makers who are fast becoming an important part of California’s economy, Bradshaw said.

Investigators learned of the factory through informants, some of whom had escaped from the complex, officials said.

Jose Reynosa, owner of the apartments that rented for $950 each, said he had not been suspicious.

“They were always friendly to me,” he said. “They paid their rent on time.”