Human smuggling operation 29 rescued

Police rescue dozens from a human smuggling operation running out of a Houston home. Authorities respond to a report of a man running down the street in his underwear yelling about being kidnaped.

The following written content from Cory McCord | KHOU

A man escaped and ran down the street yelling that he’d been kidnapped. When police arrived, the man led them to a house where dozens of others were being held.

Dozens of people were found inside a Southwest Houston home on Thursday night. They were being held in their underwear and the one female who was rescued may be a minor, according to police.

According to police, the discovery was made at a home in the 4800 block of Raven Ridge Drive around 9 p.m.

Police said they got reports of a man who was running down the street in his underwear yelling that he had been kidnapped.

The man told police that there were more people being held at the house from which he escaped. When the police entered the home, they found 25 men and one woman, which one commander called a “significant number” of people.

By Friday morning, police said they had determined 29 people in total were being held in the home.

Officers just put one person who was in handcuffs in the back of one of these cruisers. One of the victims told officers they knew they were coming to Houston, were promised a job, but that changed when they got here. @KHOU #khou11 pic.twitter.com/HCqGkuwNhJ
— Chris Costa (@ChrisCostaTV) December 4, 2020

Police said they determined it to be a human smuggling operation. The victims had been picked up in Brownsville and some had been in the Houston home for days while others had been there for a week.

The officer on scene said that one of the men told him he knew he was coming to Houston and was promised a job, but that when he arrived, things changed.

The victims were from different Latin countries — Honduras, El Salvador Mexico, Cuba — according to police.

Three people were detained but it’s unclear if they’re suspects.

A nearby school gym was opened for the victims to get out of the cold and neighbors offered clothes and food since they were all in their underwear.