3 Accused of Smuggling Immigrants

Three suspects were in federal custody in Los Angeles on Friday in connection with an alleged smuggling racket that authorities say brought scores of deaf Mexican immigrants into the country illegally and put them to work selling key chains and other trinkets in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles ring has been smuggling deaf illegal immigrants into the United States since at least 1995 and harboring them until they were sent to work hawking trinkets in New York, officials charged. While in Los Angeles, a federal complaint said, the deaf immigrants were directed to sell their wares at Los Angeles International Airport and other sites.

The arrests of the three suspects late Wednesday at a Koreatown home, authorities said, directly linked the alleged Los Angeles smuggling network to the sensational discovery July 18 of more than 50 deaf illegal immigrant peddlers at two residences in New York City.

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Among the victims found in New York were Wendy Leon Maynez, a 19-year-old niece by marriage of Jose Angel Pescador Osuna, the Mexican consul general in Los Angeles.

The three arrested here included the Los Angeles operation’s alleged ringleaders--Andreas Pfeiffer, a German citizen, and Hilario Rivera Pauletti. The third suspect, Carlos Paoletti, Rivera’s son, was described as a ring manager. Rivera and Paoletti are Mexican nationals.

All three are deaf and speech-impaired, officials said. Rivera is a cousin of the Mexico City-based Paoletti family accused of running the New York operation, authorities said.

According to federal complaints, Pfeiffer “on several occasions” drove a van across the U.S.-Mexico border with illegal immigrants concealed inside “for the leaders of the New York operation.”

Although some of the deaf peddlers were allegedly smuggled into the United States, a source confirmed that others have told authorities they were waved into the country at the border crossing at San Ysidro after gesturing to U.S. inspectors that they were deaf.

Stephen Webber, a Los Angeles attorney representing Pfeiffer, denied the charges and described his client as a hard-working supermarket clerk--not a deaf-peddler kingpin.

Pfeiffer rented a Hollywood apartment for eight years until early 1995, said Maria Cordova, his former landlord. She described him as a “very nice man,” but said the two argued when large numbers of deaf people from Mexico--up to 14--began to stay at his flat. Cordova said she believed that many left every morning to sell trinkets.

The three Los Angeles suspects are expected to eventually be taken to New York, where federal prosecutors are presenting their case.

Authorities say the investigation is continuing and that other charges, including those alleging civil rights violations, are also possible against the 16 people arrested so far nationwide.