Federal and State police in the western state of Michoacan, Mexico raided a group home and rescued 458 children who were forced to beg for money and suffered sexual abuse while being against their will in filthy conditions.

“I’m in utter dismay because we weren’t expecting the conditions we found at the group home,” said Michoacan Governor Salvador Jara.

In addition to 458 children, police also rescued 138 at-risk adults from the “La Gran Familia de le Mama Rosa”, or Great Family, group home in the city of Zamora.  They were all kept in deplorable and dangerous conditions, fed rotten food, and forced to sleep on the floor among rats and other vermin.  They were infested with lice, ticks, and fleas.  The people running “Great Family” refused to allow many of them to ever leave the premises. 

One person who was finally allowed to leave was a 31-year old woman who gave birth to two children at the home, but was forced to leave them behind when she left.  It was her complaint and those of four other parents that prompted the investigation.  The owner of the home, identified as Rosa del Carmen Verduzco, allegedly kept the two babies and registered them as her own.

Verduzco is well-known in Mexico as “Mama Rosa”, an almost legendary Mother Teresa-like figure who for six decades has taken in street children and raised them to adulthood.  Political candidates would stop by to have their photos taken with her.  Police are currently detaining Verduzco and eight of her employees for questioning.