Handicapped Mexico

The Mexican family charged with smuggling 57 deaf countrymen into the United States to serve as trinket sellers apparently duped their nation's consular officials in New York into assuring family members that their loved ones were leading healthy, profitable lives and did not want to come home, according to relatives here and Mexican officials in New York.

As they sat in their humble home here this week, Guadalupe Muniz Rodriguez's parents shook their heads over what they said was the most perplexing, unanswered question after their daughter's 14-month ordeal.

The deaf peddlers at Los Angeles International Airport know all about New York City and the bad jefes who did business there, the "king peddlers" who allegedly kept more than 50 Mexican immigrants in crowded apartments as virtual indentured servants. Asked about the New York trinket-selling operation of the Paoletti family, one of the Los Angeles peddlers wrote in a reporter's notebook: "No me gusta N.Y." (I don't like New York.

The deaf peddlers at Los Angeles International Airport know all about New York City and the bad jefes who did business there, the "king peddlers" who allegedly kept more than 50 Mexican immigrants in crowded apartments as virtual indentured servants. Asked about the New York trinket-selling operation of the Paoletti family, one of the Los Angeles peddlers wrote in a reporter's notebook: "No me gusta N.Y." (I don't like New York.

As they sat in their humble home here this week, Guadalupe Muniz Rodriguez's parents shook their heads over what they said was the most perplexing, unanswered question after their daughter's 14-month ordeal.

Authorities confiscated more than $200 million in U.S. currency from methamphetamine producers in one of this city's ritziest neighborhoods, they said Friday, calling it the largest drug cash seizure in history. The seizure reflected the vast scope of an illegal drug trade linking Asia, Mexico and the United States, officials said. Two of the seven people arrested Thursday at a faux Mediterranean villa in the Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood were Chinese nationals.

The Mexican family charged with smuggling 57 deaf countrymen into the United States to serve as trinket sellers apparently duped their nation's consular officials in New York into assuring family members that their loved ones were leading healthy, profitable lives and did not want to come home, according to relatives here and Mexican officials in New York.