Sweatshop Raid Yields Indictments

A federal grand jury indicted nine Thai nationals Thursday on charges they forced illegal aliens from their own country to work in a sweatshop ringed by razor wire.

After the defendants recruited the laborers, mostly women, from Thailand, they took them to an El Monte apartment complex that served as a labor camp for making garments.

Federal agents raided the sweatshop Aug. 2, saying 70 illegal immigrants from Thailand were forced to sew day and night in squalid conditions for years under threat of murder or rape. The workers say they worked up to 115 hours a week in the complex, which was surrounded by razor wire.

The indictment further charges that the defendants confined the laborers, censored their mail and monitored their telephone calls.