(Reuters) – Police responding to reports of a kidnapping said on Friday they had found more than 90 people crammed into a two-story suburban Houston home and suspected it was being used in a human smuggling operation.
The 90 victims, all but roughly five of them men, were removed from the house and given food and water, said Daryn Edwards, assistant chief of the Houston Police Department.
“They basically (were) in there in their basic clothing and all, all huddled together. So that’s what we saw when we got in,” he said. No children were found among them.
At least several of the people showed symptoms of COVID-19 infection, including fever and lack of taste or smell, Edward said. The victims told police they had not eaten recently.
Edwards said no arrests had been made in the case as of Friday afternoon and declined to offer further details, citing the ongoing investigation.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Richard Chang)
