JANUARY 17, 2025:
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A Texas truck driver charged in the deaths of 53 migrants who rode in a sweltering tractor-trailer with no air conditioning pleaded guilty Thursday (Jan. 17, 2025) over the 2022 tragedy that became the nation’s deadliest smuggling attempt across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Homero Zamorano Jr. pleaded guilty in federal court in San Antonio to one count of conspiracy to transport aliens resulting in death, causing serious bodily injury, and placing lives in jeopardy; one count of transportation of aliens resulting in death; and one count of transportation of aliens resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy.
The 48-year-old could face a maximum sentence of life in prison, the Justice Department announced. Zamorano is scheduled to be sentenced on April 24.
Mark Stevens, Zamorano’s attorney, said in an email that he was unable to comment on a pending case.
Authorities say Zamorano, who drove the truck, and other men charged in the smuggling attempt 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.
Temperatures reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) while migrants screamed and banged the walls of the trailer for help or tried to claw their way out, investigators said.
The truck had been packed with 67 people, and the dead included 27 from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, seven from Guatemala and two from El Salvador, according to Mexican authorities. Prosecutors have said migrants paid up to $15,000 each to be taken across the U.S. border.
The incident happened on a remote San Antonio back road on June 27, 2022. Police officers detained Zamorano after spotting him hiding in nearby brush, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. A search of Zamorano’s cellphone showed calls concerning the smuggling run.
Surveillance video of the 18-wheeler passing through a Border Patrol checkpoint showed the driver matched Zamorano’s description, according to the indictment.
Also charged previously in the tragedy was Christian Martinez, also of Texas, who with Zamorano was arrested shortly after the migrants were found. Martinez has since pleaded guilty to smuggling-related charges.
Four Mexican nationals were also arrested in the case in 2023. And in August, a suspect arrested in Guatemala was charged with helping coordinate the smuggling attempt. U.S. authorities said they would seek the extradition of Rigoberto Román Miranda Orozco, who is charged with six counts of migrant smuggling resulting in death or serious injury. Authorities alleged he is connected to four Guatemalan migrants in the trailer, three of whom died, and faces up to life in prison if convicted.
According to the indictment against Miranda Orozco, the smugglers had forced the migrants to give up their cellphones before getting inside the trailer, leaving them no way to call for help. An unknown powder was spread around the trailer to prevent the smell of human cargo from being detected by patrol dogs at border inspection stations.
When the trailer was opened in San Antonio, 48 migrants were already dead. Another 16 were taken to hospitals, where five more died. President Joe Biden called the tragedy “horrifying and heartbreaking.”
Those who died were seeking better lives. News of the trailer full of bodies was met with horror in cities and villages accustomed to seeing their young people leave, trying to flee poverty or violence in Central America and Mexico.
Authorities allege 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.
Migrants paid the organization up to $15,000 each to be taken across the border. The fee would cover up to three attempts to get into the U.S.
The incident is the deadliest among tragedies that have claimed thousands of lives in recent decades as people attempt to cross the U.S. border from Mexico. Ten migrants died in 2017 after they were trapped inside a truck parked at a Walmart in San Antonio. In 2003, the bodies of 19 migrants were found in a sweltering truck southeast of San Antonio.
AUGUST 22, 2024:
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Arrests following the 2022 deaths of 53 migrants in Texas who were left in a sweltering tractor-trailer have climbed to more than a dozen (Aug. 22, 2024), and now stretch to Central America, following years of investigations into the deadliest smuggling attempt from the U.S.-Mexico border.
Guatemalan officials announced the arrests of seven people accused of helping smuggle the migrants. They included the alleged ringleader of a smuggling operation whose extradition has been requested by the United States, Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez told The Associated Press.
The Justice Department was scheduled to hold a news conference Thursday in San Antonio to discuss a “significant” arrest in the case but did not provide details.
Jiménez said the arrests were made possible after 13 raids in three of the country’s departments. Police also seized vehicles and cash and rescued other migrants during the operations, Guatemalan officials 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.
Six people were charged previously.
They include Homero Zamorano Jr., who authorities say drove the truck, and Christian Martinez, who were arrested shortly after the migrants were found. Both are from Texas. Martinez has since pleaded guilty to smuggling-related charges, while Zamorano pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Four Mexican nationals were also arrested in 2023.
Authorities say 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.
When the trailer was opened in San Antonio, 48 migrants were already dead. Another 16 were taken to hospitals, where five more died. The dead included 27 people from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, seven from Guatemala and two from El Salvador.
Authorities allege 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.
Migrants paid the organization up to $15,000 each to be taken across the border. The fee would cover up to three attempts to get into the country.
The arrests in Guatemala include Rigoberto Román Mirnado Orozco, the alleged ringleader, who was arrested in the department of San Marcos, on the border with Mexico. The other arrests occurred in Huehuetenango and Jalapa departments.
Several of those arrested are related and carry the Orozco surname, officials said.
Guatemalan officials accuse the group of housing and transferring hundreds of migrants to the United States over several years.
JULY 5, 2022:
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Officials in Texas say more than half of the 53 migrants found dead or dying in a tractor-trailer last week (June 27, 2022) in San Antonio have been identified. The youngest among them was 13 years old. That’s according to officials in Bexar County, where the trailer was found abandoned on a backroad. County officials say they’re still waiting confirmation on the identifications of 18 victims, more than a week after the nation’s deadliest smuggling attempt.
JUNE 28, 2022:
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Forty-six people have been found dead after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer on a remote back road in Texas. It’s the latest tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico to the U.S. Sixteen people were hospitalized, including four children. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said a city worker was alerted to the situation by a cry for help shortly before 6 p.m. Monday (June 27, 2022). Fire Chief Charles Hood said 12 of those taken to hospitals were adults and four were children. He said they were hot to the touch and dehydrated, and no water was found in the trailer.
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