23 Illegal Aliens Seized in El Monte

Immigration agents and police, acting on an anonymous tip, raided an El Monte house Sunday and detained 23 illegal immigrants and three others accused of smuggling them into the country, an official said.

The three accused smugglers, also identified as illegal immigrants, were apparently holding the others hostage in demand of payment from friends or relatives, said John Belluardo, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The 23 were being held as material witnesses and will eventually be deported to Mexico. The smugglers, two women and a man, were held while authorities investigate whether the case was part of a larger operation, Belluardo said.

Two guns were seized in the raid.