Residents were forced to beg for money and suffered sexual abuse while being held against their will in filthy conditions

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Mexican federal and state police officers have raided a home in the western state of Michoacan and rescued 458 children who were forced to beg for money and suffered sexual abuse while being held against their will in filthy conditions.

The attorney general, Jesús Murillo Karam, said police had also rescued 138 adults from the Great Family group home in the city of Zamora.

The home's residents were kept in deplorable conditions, fed rotten food and made to sleep on the floor among rats, ticks and fleas and many of them were not allowed to leave the premises.

"I'm in utter dismay because we weren't expecting the conditions we found at the group home," Murillo Karam told a news conference attended by federal investigators and the Michoacan governor, Salvador Jara.

Police have detained the home's owner, Rosa del Carmen Verduzco, and eight employees for questioning.

The investigation began after five parents filed complaints last year with authorities because they were not allowed to see their children at the home.

One of the parents was a woman who grew up and gave birth to two children at Great Family, which has been open for 40 years. She was allowed to leave when she was 31 but was not allowed by the home to take her two children with her.