Police arrest gang that trafficked dead migrants in Texas

GUATEMALA CITY —

Guatemalan police on Wednesday arrested seven Guatemalans accused of trafficking 53 migrants from Mexico and Central America, who died of suffocation in 2022 in Texas after being abandoned inside a van.

Speaking to The Associated PressGuatemalan Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez confirmed the arrests, which he said were made possible after 13 raids in three departments of the country as part of the police operation “San Antonio.”

Police confirmed that vehicles and cash were seized during the raids, and other migrants were rescued.

“This is a collaborative effort between the Guatemalan police and Homeland Security, as well as other national agencies, to dismantle human trafficking structures, one of the strategic objectives of President Bernardo Arévalo’s government, and thus address the phenomenon of irregular migration,” said Jiménez.

On June 27, 2022, a van with 62 migrants was located in a deserted area in San Antonio, Texas, abandoned and without air conditioning. Upon inspection, it was found The bodies of 53 people were foundamong which there were at least 10 Guatemalans. There were some survivors, who were rescued and transferred to medical centers.

Jiménez confirmed that among those arrested is Rigoberto Román Miranda Orozco, the alleged leader of the gang, who was arrested in the Guatemalan department of San Marcos, on the border with Mexico, and whose extradition the United States has requested.

According to the arrest warrant obtained by AP, U.S. authorities accuse Miranda Orozco of six counts related to Guatemalan victims, including conspiracy to bring a migrant into the United States causing his death; and complicity in the introduction of a migrant into the country causing his death.

In addition to two counts of aiding and abetting the bringing of two migrants into the United States resulting in death; conspiracy to bring a migrant into the United States causing serious bodily injury and endangering lives, and aiding and abetting the bringing of a migrant into the country causing serious bodily injury.

The other arrests took place in the departments of Huehuetenango and Jalapa. The police identified the gang as “Los Orozcos” since several of those arrested are relatives and have that surname.

Carlos Merida, Miranda Orozco’s lawyer, said that his client did not accept the charges against him and that he was an ordinary citizen “who was a migrant in the north for 15 years.”

A judge informed him of the crimes for which he was arrested and for which his extradition was requested, sent him to preventive detention and ordered that his statement hearing be held in a month.

“This organization illegally housed and transported hundreds of migrants of different nationalities to the United States, collecting millions of quetzales (the national currency) over several years of operation,” the Guatemalan government said.

Following the discovery of the deceased in 2022, the AP spoke exclusively with one of the survivors, Yenifer Yulisa Cardona Tomas, who said that a friend’s advice saved her life: She had been advised to sit near the van door so she could breathe through its tiny slits.

Cardona, who was 20 at the time, said the “coyotes” — as the human traffickers hired to travel to the United States are known — took their cellphones and sprinkled the floor of the van with spices — he believed it was chicken broth — so the dogs wouldn’t detect their presence. “It stung a lot,” he recalled.

According to Cardona’s account, it was very hot and people, seeing themselves abandoned, crowded at the doors.

“People were screaming, some were crying. Women in particular were asking for the truck to stop and open the doors because the truck was hot and they couldn’t breathe,” she recalled.

“People were asking for water. Some of them ran out. Others were carrying water,” said Cardona, who spent eight days in hospital.

US police later arrested the driver and three other people of Mexican origin as responsible for the deaths of the migrants.

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