San Diego

Border Patrol agents have broken three smuggling rings that transported illegal aliens in chartered airplanes from Montgomery Field to Los Angeles County, Immigration and Naturalization Service officials said Tuesday.

Fifteen people were arrested Monday and Tuesday and were arraigned before a U.S. magistrate in San Diego, said INS Deputy District Director Clifton Rogers. Except for one person charged in the case, all persons arrested are illegal aliens, including four leaders of the three rings, said Rogers.

INS officials said the smugglers were chartering aircraft from Western Sun Aviation and hiring pilots, but neither the company nor any pilots have been charged.

According to the INS, the rings were charging $400 to $500 to transport aliens to airports in Compton and El Monte. INS officials believe that the three operations were transporting about 150 aliens a week and were hiding their charges in a rented house on A Street in Golden Hill.