SAN ANTONIO, Texas – A joint news conference was held Tuesday afternoon to provide a one-year update on the investigation of the 2022 human smuggling incident that resulted in the death of 53 men, women and children, along with 11 injured.
U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza was joined by Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite and Special Agent in Charge Craig Larrabee for Homeland Security Investigations, San Antonio Division, in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.
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Significant updates were released to the public and the prosecution of those who played a role in the deadly smuggling case.
What happened
It was the deadliest tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico. 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, said Francisco Garduño, chief of Mexico’s National Immigration Institute.
The incident happened on a remote San Antonio back road on June 27, 2022. Arriving police officers detained Homero Zamorano Jr. after spotting him hiding in some nearby brush, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. A search of Zamorano’s cellphone revealed calls with Christian Martinez 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. One survivor of the journey, a 20-year-old from Guatemala, told The Associated Press that smugglers had covered the trailer’s floor with what she believes was powdered chicken bouillon, apparently to throw off any dogs at the checkpoint.
The tragedy occurred at a time when huge numbers of migrants have been coming to the U.S., many of them taking perilous risks to cross swift rivers and canals and scorching desert landscapes. Migrants were stopped nearly 240,000 times in May, up by one-third from a year ago.
Of the 73 people in the truck, those who died included people from the Mexican states of Guanajuato, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Mexico, Zacatecas, Queretaro, Morelos and Mexico City. Migrants from Honduras and Guatemala also were among those who died in the deadliest known smuggling attempt in the United States.
Prosecution announced
In July of 2022, a federal grand jury in San Antonio indicted Zamorano Jr., 46, and Martinez, 28, both of Pasadena, Texas, on counts of transporting and conspiring to transport migrants illegally resulting in death; and transporting and conspiring to transport migrants illegally resulting in serious injury.
On Tuesday, it was announced that four Mexican nationals were arrested Monday in San Antonio, Houston, and Marshall, Texas for their roles in the tractor-trailer smuggling tragedy, bringing the total to six suspects.
“Human smugglers prey on migrants’ hope for a better life – but their only priority is profit,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Tragically, 53 people who had been loaded into a tractor-trailer in Texas and endured hours of unimaginable cruelty lost their lives because of this heartless scheme. Human smugglers who put people’s lives at risk for profit and break our laws cannot hide for long: We will find you and bring you to justice.”
According to court documents, between December 2021 and June 2022, Riley Covarrubias-Ponce, aka Rrili, aka Rilay, 30; Felipe Orduna-Torres, aka Cholo, aka Chuequito/Chuekito, aka Negro, 28; Luis Alberto Rivera-Leal, aka Cowboy, 37; and Armando Gonzales-Ortega, aka El Don, aka Don Gon, 53, are alleged to have participated in a human smuggling organization which illegally brought adults and children from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico into the United States.
Docs show that the alleged smugglers worked in concert to transport the migrants by sharing routes, guides, stash houses, trucks, trailers, and transporters to consolidate costs, minimize risks, and maximize profit. The organization maintained a variety of tractors and trailers for their smuggling operations, some of which were stored at a private parking lot in San Antonio.
Each defendant has been charged with one count each 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.
If convicted on the top counts, they each face a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Court documents show what happened days leading up to incident
The indictment alleges that in the days leading up to June 27, 2022, Covarrubias-Ponce, Orduna-Torres, and others exchanged the names of undocumented individuals who would be smuggled in a tractor-trailer. The four new defendants charged in the superseding indictment allegedly orchestrated the retrieval of an empty tractor-trailer and its corresponding hand-off to the driver on June 27.
The driver, Zamorano Jr., of Elkhart, Texas, was previously charged in a July 2022 indictment along with Martinez, of Palestine, Texas. Orduna-Torres allegedly provided the Laredo, Texas, address at which Zamorano loaded the migrants onto the tractor trailer. The indictment also alleges that Gonzalez-Ortega traveled to Laredo to meet the tractor-trailer, where at least 66 undocumented individuals, including eight children and one pregnant woman, were loaded into the back to be smuggled. Martinez, Covarrubias-Ponce, Orduna-Torres, Rivera-Leal, and Gonzales-Ortega then allegedly coordinated, facilitated, passed messages, and kept each other updated on the tractor-trailer’s progress.
“The allegations in the indictment are horrifying,” said U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas. “Dozens of desperate, vulnerable men, women, and children put their trust in smugglers who abandoned them in a locked trailer to perish in the merciless south Texas summer. Thanks to our law enforcement partners at the local, state, and federal levels – with the Homeland Security Investigations San Antonio Division leading the investigation – we are one step closer to delivering justice for those migrants and their families.”
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. 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.
The Associated Press contributed with this article.
Previously related stories:
53 people, including five kids, are dead in San Antonio after being trapped in tractor-trailer
Driver in San Antonio tractor-trailer tragedy pretended to be a victim: Mexican immigration official
Illegal smuggling cases difficult to prosecute; Migrant victims often fear retribution
More Texas migrant truck victims identified; youngest was 13
Biden calls migrant deaths ‘horrifying and heartbreaking’
US official: Migrants who died cleared inland checkpoint
Migrants in Texas trailer tragedy died seeking better lives
Texas will increase checkpoints for trucks crossing from Mexico after migrant smuggling deaths
2 indicted in migrant death-trailer case that left 53 dead
San Antonio truck tragedy a reminder of struggle to stop migrant deaths
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Two men indicted in connection with deaths of 53 migrants who were found in tractor-trailer
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Candlelight vigil held in Houston for migrants found in San Antonio tractor-trailer
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In San Antonio, tears, prayers and rain at a vigil for migrants who died in a sweltering trailer
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