US arrests four Mexicans for the 2022 deaths of 53 migrants in a hot tractor-trailer

The United States has arrested four Mexican nationals linked to the death of 53 migrants in June of last year. The Department of Justice reported the arrest of alleged members of a human smuggling network on Tuesday. The four men were detained on Monday in the Texan cities of San Antonio, Houston and Marshall. The discovery of 48 dead bodies in an abandoned tractor-trailer (five more died at the hospital) shocked the world a year ago and served as a reminder of how thousands of migrants risk their lives to reach the United States.

The detainees, all of Mexican nationality, are Riley Covarrubias Ponce, 30; Felipe Orduna Torres, 28; Luis Alberto Rivera Leal, 37, and Armando González Ortega, 53. The four were part of a criminal organization that smuggled people from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, according to the Department of Justice. They have been charged with conspiracy to transport immigrants resulting in death, serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy. If convicted, they could be sentenced to life in prison. Four other suspects were arrested back in 2022.

The alleged perpetrators of the tragedy that occurred on June 27, 2022 had discussed “how to consolidate costs, minimize risks, and maximize profits” with respect to routes, guides, stash houses, trucks, trailers and transporters, according to a statement by the Department of Justice. “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,” the document added.

“Human smugglers prey on migrants’ hope for a better life — but their only priority is profit,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. The Department of Justice argues that the arrest of those involved in the heinous crime is a sign that there will be no impunity for those who take advantage of the most vulnerable. “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,” added Garland.

According to the indictment, before the tractor-trailer was discovered, Covarrubias, Orduna and the others exchanged the names of the people they would smuggle. The group obtained the empty tractor-trailer and delivered it to the driver of the vehicle, Homero Zamorano, who was detained by the authorities in July 2022 along with Christian Martínez. Orduna provided Zamorano with an address in Laredo, where he would have to pick up the 66 migrants, including eight minors and a pregnant woman.

Prosecutors handling the case claim that the defendants knew that the trailer’s air conditioning was malfunctioning and would not blow any cool air to the migrants inside. When the alleged members of the criminal organization opened the doors of the trailer-tractor, after a three-hour journey from Laredo to San Antonio that passed two checkpoints, they found that 48 of the people on board had died. The members then fled the scene. Authorities found the trailer and transferred 16 of the migrants to hospitals in the region. Five later died there.

“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,” said Jaime Esparza, one of the lead attorneys of the case. The tragedy continues to be investigated by Homeland Security Investigators with assistance from areas such as the Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the San Antonio Police Department, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and other local law enforcement.

As part of the effort to reduce the historic number of undocumented migrants, President Joe Biden’s administration launched a major operation to break up human trafficking networks in April 2022. The first six months of this coordinated effort between various security agencies resulted in the arrest of more than 5,000 alleged members of criminal gangs that operate in Central and North America. Some of the detainees were apprehended in Guatemala and Mexico, where more than 200 cellphones, weapons and ammunition, and $240,000 were also seized.

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