They arrest four more people linked to the death of 53 migrants in the US

US officials in Texas arrested four Mexican men on suspicion of operating a human smuggling ring allegedly responsible for death a year ago of 53 immigrants in sweltering heat inside a truck, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Dozens of migrants from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras were found in a trailer with faulty air conditioning that was abandoned on the outskirts of San Antonio on June 27, 2022, a day when temperatures reached 39.4 degrees Celsius.

US officials allege the suspects operated a ring that smuggled adults and children from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico into the United States, overseeing the fateful journey that included eight children and a pregnant woman.

The suspects shared routes, guides, hideouts and vehicles, and stored some of their tractors and trailers in a private parking lot in San Antonio, prosecutors said.

The indictment alleges that some of the defendants knew that the air conditioning in the trailer was broken and could not ventilate fresh air for the migrants inside.

When the suspects opened the door after a three-hour drive, they found 48 of the migrants dead, including the pregnant woman, prosecutors allege. Another 16 were taken to hospitals, five of whom died.

A grand jury indicted the four men on June 7 on a series of illegal transportation charges that could result in life in prison if convicted, the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas said in a statement.

The four men arrested Monday in San Antonio, Houston and Marshall, Texas, were identified as Riley Covarrubias-Ponce, 30; Felipe Orduna-Torres, 28 years old; Luis Alberto Rivera-Leal, 37; and Armando Gonzales-Ortega, 53, according to the statement.

Reuters he was unable to determine if they had retained attorneys who could make any statement on their behalf.

The arrests follow indictments last year of four other suspects in connection with the case, including the driver police found hiding in brush near the abandoned truck.

“The allegations in the prosecution are terrifying. Dozens of desperate and vulnerable men, women and children trusted traffickers who abandoned them in a locked trailer to perish in the merciless South Texas summer,” said Jaime Esparza, U.S. Attorney for the Western District. of Texas, in the statement.

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