SAN ANTONIO (AP) — US authorities announced Tuesday the arrests of four more people in connection with the deaths of 53 migrants last year, including eight children, who were abandoned in a trailer truck in the scorching Texas summer.
The authorities reported, on the anniversary of the tragedy that occurred on June 27, 2022, that the four defendants were aware that the trailer truck’s air conditioning was not working and would not cool down the migrants trapped inside during the almost three hours long.
When the trailer was opened in San Antonio, 48 migrants were already dead. Another 16 were taken to hospitals, where five of them died.
It has been the deadliest tragedy for migrants smuggled across the southern border of the United States. Among the deceased were 27 Mexicans, 14 Hondurans, seven Guatemalans and two Salvadorans.
The driver and another man were arrested shortly after finding the migrants. They were charged with human trafficking resulting in death and criminal association.
The four new arrests were made Monday in Houston, San Antonio and Marshall, Texas. Authorities said the smuggling operation transported migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico by sharing routes, guides, hideouts, trucks and trailers, some of which were kept in a private San Antonio parking lot.
Authorities arrested Riley Covarrubias Ponce, 30 years old; Felipe Orduña Torres, 28; Luis Alberto Rivera Leal, 37, and Armando Gonzales Ortega, 53. All were charged with conspiracy to transport migrants resulting in death, causing serious bodily injury, and endangering lives. Each faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
A federal grand jury indictment alleges that the four men exchanged the names of the migrants who would be transported in a truck. Orduña Torres gave them the address in the border city of Laredo, Texas, where they would be picked up, and Gonzales Ortega met them there. The four then coordinated the trip and exchanged messages about the progress of the truck on the way to San Antonio.
The truck was found on a remote San Antonio road, and police officers who arrived on the scene detained the driver Homero Zamorano Jr. after they saw him hiding in a nearby bush.
A security camera recording shows the truck passing through a Border Patrol checkpoint. A 20-year-old survivor from Guatemala told The Associated Press that the traffickers had covered the floor of the trailer truck with what she believes was powdered chicken broth, apparently to mislead the dogs at the post. control.
Another survivor, Adán Lara Vega, said the truck was already hot when it left Laredo and that the trapped migrants soon began crying and asking for water. Some took turns breathing through a single hole in the wall, while others banged on the walls and yelled to get the driver’s attention.
“Human smugglers prey on migrants’ hope for a better life, but their only priority is profit,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “Tragically, 53 people who had been loaded in the tractor-trailer in Texas and endured hours of unimaginable cruelty lost their lives because of this ruthless ruse.”
