Disabled Mexicans Forced To Peddle Trinkets In N.Y., Cops Say

Smuggled into the United States, scores of deaf Mexicans were kept in slavelike conditions and forced to peddle trinkets for the people who had brought them here, authorities said Saturday.

Police found 62 Mexicans, many of them also mute, crammed into two Queens apartments divided into cubicles, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said. Among the group were 10 children ranging in age from 4 months to 7 years.

“It would appear that they were lured here by promises of a better life,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

Giuliani said at least one person and possibly more appeared to have been responsible for holding the Mexicans “in bondage, in virtual slavery.” The adults - 30 women and 22 men - also may have been physically and sexually abused, he said.

Police were questioning a man believed to have run the operation and two women who also appeared to have been involved.