4 more arrested in human trafficking case that left 53 dead in Texas

In Texas, four more men were arrested in connection with a people-smuggling operation that killed 53 people on the outskirts of San Antonio last year, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Monday’s arrests, which came one day before the first anniversary of the discovery of the dead migrants, marked a major development in the federal investigation into one of the deadliest episodes involving migrants along the southern United States border in recent history. history.

The arrests of the men bring the number of people facing criminal charges in the case to six. Two others were charged last year.

The four men arrested this week are Riley Covarrubias-Ponce, 30, Felipe Orduna-Torres, 28, Luis Alberto Rivera-Leal, 37, and Armando Gonzales-Ortega, 53, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Texas. They are all from Mexico. They were part of a people-smuggling organization that brought people from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico to the United States from December 2021 to June 2022, according to the federal prosecutor’s office in San Antonio.

“People smugglers who risk human lives for profit and violate our laws cannot hide for long,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement Tuesday. “We will find you and bring you to justice.”

The 53 men, women and children were found dead in and around an abandoned tractor-trailer on June 27, 2022, after San Antonio police officers received 911 calls from people concerned about the vehicle.

The temperature reached 100 degrees that day and the truck did not have a working air conditioning system.

When members of the smuggling organization encountered the vehicle at the end of the three-hour journey to San Antonio, they opened the doors to find 48 of the migrants dead from the heat, with five others dying after being transported to hospitals. said the prosecutor’s office. Eleven other migrants were injured.

The four men arrested this week worked together and “shared routes, guides, storehouses, trucks, trailers and carriers to consolidate costs, minimize risk and maximize profits,” the US law firm said. They also maintained multiple tractors and trailers for their operations, some of which were stored in a private parking lot in San Antonio, it added.

Some of those arrested on Monday were aware that the air conditioning was not working and would not blow cool air to the migrants inside, prosecutors continued.

The indictment, filed on June 7, also accuses the four men of exchanging the names of the migrants smuggled in the trailer in the days leading up to June 27, 2022, and of attempting to recover an empty tractor-trailer. trailer and its handover to the driver on the day the migrants were found dead.

All four were charged with conspiracy to illegally transport and transport migrants resulting in death, and conspiracy to illegally transport and transport migrants resulting in serious injury, the prosecutor’s office said.

If convicted, each of them could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison, the agency said.

Their charges mirror those of the two Texas men charged in July: Homero Zamorano Jr., 47, of Pasadena, Texas, identified as the driver, and Christian Martinez, 29, of Palestine, Texas.

The American law firm said at the time that the charges against Mr. Zamorano and Mr. Martinez carried a maximum sentence of life in prison or the death penalty, and that Mr. Garland would decide whether to seek the death penalty at a later date.

The six men are in federal custody. Mr. Zamorano’s trial has begun and the other defendants are awaiting trial, court documents show.

Mr Martinez’s attorney declined to comment. The US prosecutor’s office and the lawyers for the other defendants did not immediately respond to calls or were not available Tuesday evening.

“People smugglers prey on migrants’ hopes for a better life,” said Mr. Garland in his statement. “But their only priority is profit.”