PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- Authorities who found about 250 illegal
                  Central American immigrants at "drop houses" this week blame the influx on
                  Hurricane Mitch.

                  Phoenix police alerted by neighbors found about 140 Hondurans and
                  Guatemalans in one home Wednesday and held 73 of them for Immigration
                  and Naturalization Service agents.

                  About 70 others fled as police approached, authorities said.

                  A day earlier, INS agents saw about 150 people from the same two
                  countries leaving the back of a rental moving vehicle and detains 126 of
                  them, said spokesman Russell Ahr.

                  All apparently were headed for Los Angeles, from which they expected to
                  fly to other U.S. destinations, he said Thursday.

                  A crackdown at Sky Harbor International Airport apparently has led
                  smugglers to change tactics in favor of Los Angeles, he said.

                  Authorities picked up more than 1,000 illegal immigrants at the Phoenix
                  airport during the first 10 days of April. Ahr said almost all of them were
                  Mexicans who had paid smugglers as much as $1,900 each. He also said
                  most of them crossed the Arizona border near Douglas, currently top U.S.
                  border-crossing spot, or Nogales, the previous recent leader.