UPDATE
Mar 19, 2025 12:30 AM CDT
Two smugglers charged after 53 immigrants died in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer with no air conditioning were found guilty Tuesday after a two-week trial, the AP reports. Jurors in federal court in San Antonio took only about an hour to convict Felipe Orduna-Torres and Armando Gonzales-Ortega, finding that they were part of a human smuggling conspiracy that resulted in death and injury. They face up to life in prison and have a June 27 sentencing date. Orduna-Torres was the leader of the smuggling group inside the US, and Gonzales-Ortega was his "right-hand man," a prosecutor said. Five men previously pleaded guilty to felony charges in the smuggling case and will be sentenced later this year. Another person charged in the US remains a fugitive, and several others have been charged in Mexico and Guatemala.
Aug 22, 2024 12:24 AM CDT
Guatemalan police on Wednesday arrested seven Guatemalans accused of having smuggled 53 migrants from Mexico and Central America who died of asphyxiation in 2022 in Texas after being abandoned in a tractor trailer in the scorching summer heat. They were the latest arrests after years of investigation into the deadliest tragedy of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico, the AP reports. The dead included eight children. Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez says the arrests were made possible after 13 raids in three of the country's departments. They included Rigoberto Román Miranda Orozco, the alleged ringleader of the smuggling gang whose extradition has been requested by the United States.
Police also seized vehicles and cash and rescued other migrants during the operations, they said in a statement. "This is a collaborative effort between the Guatemalan police and Homeland Security, in addition to other national agencies, to dismantle the structures of human trafficking, one of the strategic objectives of the government President Bernardo Arévalo in order to take on the phenomenon of irregular migration," Jiménez said. Authorities have alleged that the men worked with human smuggling operations in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, and shared routes, guides, stash houses, trucks and trailers, some of which were stored at a private parking lot in San Antonio.
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Six people were charged previously. Homero Zamorano Jr., who authorities say drove the truck, and Christian Martinez were arrested shortly after the migrants were found. Both are from Texas. Martinez later pleaded guilty to smuggling-related charges. Zamorano pleaded not guilty to smuggling-related charges and is awaiting trial. Four Mexican nationals were also arrested in 2023. Authorities have said the men were aware that the trailer's air-conditioning unit was malfunctioning and would not blow cool air to the migrants trapped inside during the sweltering, three-hour ride from the border city of Laredo to San Antonio.
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