(Washington) U.S. authorities on Thursday welcomed the arrest in Guatemala of seven suspects in the investigation into the 2022 deaths of 53 migrants in a hot truck in Texas, saying they were confident in the extradition of one of them, who is being prosecuted in the United States.
The Guatemalan Interior Ministry announced the arrest on Wednesday of seven people allegedly involved in the migrant trafficking that led to the tragedy, including Rigoberto Miranda-Orozco, 47, who is presented as the alleged leader of a gang.
He is the subject of an extradition request from the United States, the ministry said, stressing the participation in these operations by law enforcement officers from the US Department of Homeland Security.
“For two years, the Department of Justice has worked methodically to hold accountable those responsible for the horrific tragedy in San Antonio that claimed the lives of 53 people exploited by human traffickers,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
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Seven other people, two Americans – including the driver of the abandoned semi-trailer inside which the migrants were found in June 2022 in the city of San Antonio – and five Mexicans, have already been arrested in the United States.
“Four of these defendants have already pleaded guilty. The other three are scheduled to go to trial on October 21,” federal prosecutor Jaime Esparza said Thursday at a press conference in San Antonio.
They are the driver, Homero Zamorano, arrested at the scene shortly afterwards, and two Mexicans arrested in June 2023, accused of belonging to a smuggling network and who allegedly organized the delivery of the vehicle.
Of the seven people arrested in Guatemala, six will be tried in the country, only Rigoberto Miranda-Orozco will be tried in the United States once his extradition is completed, announced the American judicial authorities.
Charged with six counts of migrant smuggling resulting in death or serious bodily harm, “he faces up to life in prison,” Esparza said.
According to the indictment made public Wednesday, more than sixty migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, including eight children and a pregnant woman, were loaded around June 27, 2022 into a tractor-trailer whose air conditioning system was not working.
Among these passengers, the investigation established a link between Rigoberto Miranda-Orozco and “four of the clients of his traffic who ended up in this semi-trailer, three of whom died,” explained the assistant federal prosecutor, Eric Fuchs.
Each migrant was to pay the organizers of the illegal crossing between $12,000 and $15,000, according to the indictment.
During the trip from the border to San Antonio, as the temperature rose in the vehicle, some occupants called for help or knocked on the walls, to no avail, US judicial authorities said.
In total, 53 were dead, 48 before they even reached San Antonio and five in the hospital, according to the indictment.
The survivors suffered from hyperthermia and acute dehydration.