More than 100 people found in suspected stash house Acting on tip, officers enter Harris County house and encounter imprisoned 'sea of people'

More than 100 people were found Wednesday morning inside a house at 14711 Almeda School Road in Southeast Houston, Wednesday, March 19, 2014. Police found the group, who are all presumed to be in the country illegally -- at a squalid "stash house" in southeast Houston. Police say it appears to be human smuggling operation. less More than 100 people were found Wednesday morning inside a house at 14711 Almeda School Road in Southeast Houston, Wednesday, March 19, 2014. Police found the group, who are all presumed to be in the country ... more Photo: Cody Duty, Houston Chronicle Photo: Cody Duty, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 51 Caption Close More than 100 people found in suspected stash house 1 / 51 Back to Gallery

The phone call to police was a plea to help save a family held by smugglers. But when authorities raided the south Harris County home which they believed held the woman and children Wednesday, they found 110 people imprisoned in a packed, rancid "stash house" where smugglers had locked them away pending payment for their freedom.

A tipster had told authorities the night before that he was being extorted by smugglers, and feared for the safety of relatives from Central America. The tipster had said that a coyote drop of the mother, her 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son was supposed to have taken place Tuesday on Houston's north side, but it didn't happen and they were missing.

Police have not explained what led them to the Almeda School Road house, where they set up surveillance Wednesday morning. At 10 a.m., they stopped two men in a vehicle leaving the house. Three more suspected smugglers were arrested after they tried to flee, Houston Police Department spokesman John Cannon said.

But their biggest discovery came when authorities opened another door to the house, and encountered a "sea of people coming at the officers as they entered," Cannon said.

Federal agents, along with police, sheriff's deputies and constables, found them packed into the home, sitting on each others' laps, hungry, thirsty, and exhausted.

Dozens flooded out into the fresh air and sunlight from inside the house, which had a slumping roof and a faded "Keep Out" sign above its front door. It had been locked from the outside, and the windows were boarded from the inside, authorities said.

County records described the single-story house as being 1,284 square feet in size, though neighbors said an addition had been constructed.

Some of the occupants said they had been in the house for a few days, others more than two weeks.

"The smell and conditions were just awful," Cannon said, describing a scene of squalor: rooms littered with plastic trash bags and clothes, a single toilet, no hot water, and a terrible stench of unwashed humanity.

Smugglers had confiscated everyone's shoes to make it tougher for them to run away. Men were kept stripped to their underwear, according to authorities.

The occupants ranged in age from 5 to 47. The majority were men. Seventeen were juveniles.

"They just don't care. No decency for humans," said Ellea Johnson, a neighbor who lives across the street. "That's what got to me."

The raid marked the biggest discovery in the Houston region in at least seven years, and underscored the area's role as a hub for smuggling people into Texas and the rest of the United States, said Greg Palmore, a spokesman for Homeland Security Investigations.

The action comes on the eve of a hearing Thursday at Texas Southern University by the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee that is examining how to combat human trafficking in major U.S. cities.

"This case demonstrates the human tragedy that occurs as a result of our broken borders," said U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul, who represents part of Harris County and chairs the committee. "Last year over 100,000 people entered the United States illegally through Texas alone and the Department of Homeland Security has no plan to stop the flow."

Most of the people from the house were loaded onto buses. Authorities said they would be taken to a detention facility in north Houston, where they would be interviewed, fingerprinted and medically examined. the majority are likely to be deported.

A pregnant woman who had medical issues, but was not in labor, was taken to a hospital.

Several hours after police discovered the stash house, medical personnel wheeled a man out of the crowd on a gurney, an oxygen mask strapped to his face.

Exactly what was going on at the house remains under investigation, but smugglers typically use such operations as the final leg in a dangerous, covert journey to sneak people into the United States.

Many in the home were believed to be from Central American countries, including Honduras. That would mean that some of their treks started nearly 2,000 miles away and included first making it through Mexico, which has a record of being an especially brutal place for Central Americans traveling without immigration papers.

There are countless instances of people being robbed, raped and temporarily jailed long before they make it to Mexico's northern border. They must then cross into the United States, and then reach the relative anonymity of a city like Houston, where they can blend into the population.

Homeland Security's Palmore said the large number of immigrants in the house does not necessarily indicate more people are being pushed through Houston, but shows at lease one group was bold enough to put so many people in one place.

The most recent large residential bust in the Houston area came in 2012, when 86 people were found in a house, Palmore said.

Ovidio Cisneros, who lives near the house that was raided Wednesday, said he never suspected a problem there.

"I've lived here for 30 years and I pass by there every single day," Cisneros said. "We never saw no traffic at all."

Carol Christian and Craig Hlavaty contributed to this report.