AUSTIN, Texas — Federal agents arrested four Mexican men in Texas for the deaths of 53 illegal immigrants who died after being abandoned in an overheated tractor-trailer in San Antonio last summer.
The departments of Justice and Homeland Security announced Tuesday, exactly one year to the day of the tragedy, that four individuals had been indicted on charges of their roles in a human smuggling operation that led to the deaths of 53 people and left 12 others injured. The four men were taken into custody during law enforcement operations in San Antonio, Houston, and Marshall, Texas, earlier in the day.
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“One year ago today, an unthinkable crime perpetrated by human smugglers at our southern border caused the death of 53 human beings,” said DOJ Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. “But today’s arrests demonstrate that those who seek to profit from desperation will be brought to justice.”
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called the announcement "another important step" in the Biden administration's "unprecedented" effort to go after people who profit off smuggling immigrants into the United States.
The men indicted were identified in court documents as Riley Covarrubias-Ponce, aka Rrili and Rilay, 30; Felipe Orduna-Torres, aka Cholo, Chuequito/Chuekito, and Negro, 28; Luis Alberto Rivera-Leal, aka Cowboy, 37; and Armando Gonzales-Ortega, aka El Don and Don Gon, 53.
Each man has been indicted on one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens resulting in death, conspiracy to transport illegal aliens resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy, transportation of illegal aliens resulting in death, and transportation of illegal aliens resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy.
The indictment alleged that all four men were involved in cross-border smuggling operations of children and adults from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico to the U.S. between December 2021 and June 2022.
The four men had coordinated the housing and transportation of the dozens of immigrants in the lead-up to June 27, 2022, and on that day. The driver, Homero Zamorano Jr. of Elkhart, Texas, was previously charged, along with Christian Martinez of Palestine, Texas.
Orduna-Torres allegedly provided the Laredo address where the immigrants were to board the truck. Gonzalez-Ortega had driven to Laredo to meet the truck as the 66 people, including a pregnant woman and eight minors, were loaded. All four men indicted Tuesday had communicated with one another during the truck's 150-mile drive north of Interstate-35.
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"Some of the defendants charged were allegedly aware that the trailer’s air-conditioning unit was malfunctioning and would not blow any cool air to the migrants inside," the DOJ and DHS announcement stated. "When members of the organization met the tractor-trailer at the end of its nearly three-hour journey to San Antonio, they opened the doors to find 48 of the migrants, including the pregnant woman, were already dead. Sixteen of the undocumented individuals were transported to hospitals, and five of them died there."
If convicted on the most serious counts, they each face up to life in prison.