DEAF MEXICANS FORCED INTO SERVITUDE IN NYC; RELATED RING MAY BE AT WORK IN LOS ANGELES.

Byline: Joe Sexton The New York Times

Federal prosecutors offered a grimly detailed account Monday of how a band of illegal Mexican immigrants had smuggled deaf Mexicans into New York City for nearly a decade, charging that the smugglers ran an efficient, organized criminal enterprise complete with assigned roles as recruiters, money collectors and enforcers.

At the same time, federal immigration officials and officials of deafness groups were investigating the possibility that related rings are operating in other cities, particularly Los Angeles, where associates of suspects are believed to have strong connections.

The prosecutors said the band of smugglers, a handful of them family members, designated certain members as bosses of the two Queens County apartments where the deaf Mexicans were forced to live in overcrowded conditions. Some collected money from the victims, while others followed them as they sold key chains in the subways and streets, and searched for anyone who did not return at the end of the day. Still others, including a 59-year-old woman, went to Mexico and back to find new people to work in their organization.

The details of the government's charges were provided as the seven defendants were arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn on Monday and as officials continued to hunt for Reinaldo Paoletti, the man they think was the chief smuggler. Officials are looking for him in both Mexico and the United States.

City officials also acknowledged Monday that several city agencies had visited one of the Queens County buildings in recent months to investigate overcrowding or a medical emergency. In fact, one city housing inspector, responding to a complaint that the building was dangerously overcrowded, wrote in a report that he found no code violations.

The 57 people who were found early Saturday in the two Queens apartments remained at a motel in Queens, where they were being interviewed by prosecutors and the police. Federal officials and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Monday that they had agreed the Mexicans will remain in New York City as the authorities investigate the criminal case. Once the investigation is concluded, officials said, most will be turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which could decide to deport them.

For now, the immigrants will continue to live in the Queens motel, the Westway Motor Inn in Elmhurst. They are under house arrest, in effect. Theoretically they could leave the motel, but then the INS could seize them because most are here illegally. At least seven of the children who lived in the apartments were born in the United States and are thus citizens.

Officials with the INS said Monday that they have created a task force to investigate smuggling of deaf or impaired immigrants in other cities across the country.

Investigating in L.A.

Immigration officials in Los Angeles, as well as federal law enforcement officials in New York, said an intense investigation is under way in Los Angeles to uncover a similar operation, perhaps involving associates of the seven people arrested in New York.

One federal law enforcement official said additional arrests, some involving people in New York, are expected.

``It was a pretty lucrative operation,'' said District Attorney Richard Brown of Queens County, whose office is part of the joint investigation. ``I have to believe it is not limited to these houses in this city.''

Marcella Meyer, chief executive of the Greater Los Angeles Council on Deafness, said bands of deaf Mexican immigrants are known to be working selling trinkets in the city's malls and airports, and turning over parts of their proceeds to ``kings.''

How it worked

``There is usually a king in charge of the ring, and the vendors have to give him some of their money,'' Meyer said. She said the kings, in exchange for the proceeds, agree to help the peddlers if they get in trouble with the law.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, in a complaint made public Monday, laid out a profile of the operation, based on the accounts of victims. Adriana Paoletti-Lemus, 29, was described as the boss of the house on 93rd Street. She assisted in smuggling the deaf Mexicans across the border, prosecutors said, and she was the one to whom the victims gave their proceeds.

The victims also told prosecutors that Paoletti-Lemus beat residents and threatened to turn them over to the authorities if they refused to do the work.

Another defendant, Jose Paoletti-Lemus, a brother of Paoletti-Lemus, ran the second house along with his wife, Rosa Maria Beltran Sanchez, the government said. Prosecutors said Paoletti-Lemus had admitted providing the deaf Mexicans with the key chains for sale, and also admitted knowing people in California who smuggled others from Mexico.

Beltran-Sanchez, prosecutors said, has been smuggling people into California and New York City since 1988. They said she provided immigrants with false documents and helped others cross the border illegally.

Delia Paoletti, 59, the mother of Adriana and Jose, was described by prosecutors as one of the primary recruiters of deaf people in Mexico. Raul Alanis and Alfredo Rastrian-Paoletti were portrayed as enforcers, men who followed the peddlers through the streets or onto the subways. They would monitor their productivity.