Federal prosecutors announced the arrests of seven Guatemalans in connection to the deaths of 53 migrants who died the deadliest case of human smuggling in the US where migrants tried to claw their way out of the locked truck where temperatures soared to 140 degrees.
Prosecutors revealed Thursday that 48 migrants of the total 53 who died were already dead when they reached San Antonio on June 27, 2022.
They died on the way from the US-Mexico border to San Antonio, about a two hour trip where the big rig the migrants were trafficked in lack air conditioning, ventilation and exits.
‘As the temperature inside the trailer rose, chaos ensued. Some aliens screamed and banged on the walls for help. Some passed out, unconscious,’ the unsealed federal indictment reads.
‘Others clawed at the sides of the trailer attempting to escape.’
Six children and a pregnant woman among the dead, prosecutors stated.
The atrocity in June 2022 was the deadliest case of human smuggling in the US
Another 11 were hospitalized, however, they survived.
The arrests of the Guatemalans were heralded as ground-breaking, as they happened in Guatemala with the cooperation of that country’s government.
‘If you profit of the misery of others and you think you’re safe because you’re outside the US, you’re wrong,’ Ian Hannah, Assistant US Attorney declared.
Six of the men will be tried in their home country, while the US is seeking the extradition of one of the men, Rigoberto Román Miranda-Orozco to the Lone Star State for trial.
Prosecutors have pinned three of the deaths on him, and he faces life in prison.
‘Mirando Orozco secured payments from migrants who were citizens of Guatemala and then worked with his co-conspirators to smuggle and transport the migrants from Guatemala,’ Department of Justice prosecutors explained.
Shoes and clothes are seen in the area where an abounded truck was found with 46 dead migrants and 5 more died after hospitalized in San Antonio, Texas
Christian Martinez, 28, of Palestine, Texas was arrested and charged with conspiracy to transport illegal aliens resulting in death
Homero Zamorano, 45, was taken into custody in a nearby field after he allegedly abandoned the 18-wheeler with dozens of migrants stashed in the back in a desolate area in San Antonio on Monday. Prosecutors say he drove the truck from the US-Mexico border to San Antonio
A boy holds a picture of 13-year-old Pascual Melvin Guachiac who died in a tractor-trailer along with other migrants in San Antonio, Texas
Pictured: Fernando Jose Redondo and Adela Betulia Ramírez Quezada of Honduras were were among the 53 migrants who died
Seven others have already been arrested for their roles in this horrific smuggling case, including two US citizens and five Mexican nationals, the US Attorney Jaime Esparza explained during Thursday’s press conference.
Four of them have pleaded guilty in the US to charges, while the three others will go to trial on Oct. 21.
Prosecutor said people who smuggle migrants to American are no longer out of their reach, and they’ve bee working with the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, Hondura and Mexico to bring those criminals to American courts.
‘Recently, were expanded our portfolio to include Colombia and Panama to focus on the Darien Gap,’ Hannah added.
The Darien Gap, on the border of Colombia and Panama, has become a hot bed of human smuggling where migrants from around the world but mostly from South America, cross on foot in an attempt to make it to the US.