Police find immigrants, ostriches, a bear and wild boar in underground Russian factory

Russian police have discovered an underground clothing factory in Moscow Region where dozens of immigrants from Vietnam were being held, together with a bear, ostriches and wild boar, the region’s police department said on  Monday.

The Vietnamese workers told the police that they worked in shifts and were forbidden from leaving the workshop premises. Sixty-seven people who did not have papers documenting their right to live and work in Russia on them at the time of the raid were detained by the police.



“The foreigners who have broken the law will be fined and deported from Russia,” the police said in a statement. The police also found “cages containing wild animals: a bear, ostriches and wild boars,” the statement said. The factory residents told the police that the animals had been bought from a circus.

All the items of clothing produced at the underground sweatshop had false famous brand names sewn into them, police said. Police are considering whether to launch a criminal case into the organization of illegal immigration and the illegal use of a trademark. The fate of the animals will be decided after an inspection is carried out.