San Antonio migrant trailer tragedy: 4 additional arrests made in 2022 tractor-trailer smuggling incident
Emergency vechicles sit parked at the scene where a tractor-trailer was discovered with migrants inside outside San Antonio, Texas on June 27, 2022. - At least 46 migrants were found dead June 27, 2022 in and around a tractor-trailer that was abandon
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Four additional arrests have been made in connection with the 2022 tractor-trailer smuggling incident which resulted in the deaths of 53 and injury of 11 undocumented non-citizens.
An indictment returned by a San Antonio Jury on June 7 alleges that 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, participated in a human smuggling organization which illegally brought adults and children from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico into the United States between December 2021 and June 2022.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Four charged in connection to San Antonio migrant trailer tragedy
The indictment states the smugglers worked in concert to transport and facilitate the transporation of the migrants, sharing routes, guides, stash houses, trucks, trailers, and transporters in order to consolidate costs, minimize risks, and maximize profit.
The indictment said that in the days leading up to June 27, 2022, Covarrubias-Ponce, Orduna-Torres, and others exchanged the names of undocumented noncitizens who would be smuggled in an upcoming tractor-trailer load. The four men 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, Homero Zamorano, Jr. of Elkhart, Texas, was previously charged in a July 2022 indictment along with Christian Martinez, of Palestine, Texas. Orduna-Torres allegedly provided the Laredo address at which Zamorano loaded the migrants into 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 for smuggling.
Martinez, Covarrubias-Ponce, Orduna-Torres, Rivera-Leal, and Gonzales-Ortega then coordinated, facilitated, passed messages, and made each other aware of the tractor-trailer’s progress.
The indictment also stated that some of the men were aware that the trailer's air-conditioning unit was malfunctioning and would not blow any cool air to the migrants inside.
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After the men met the tractor-trailer at the end of an approximately three-hour journey to San Antonio, they opened the doors to find 48 of the migrants were either already dead or had died on site, including the pregnant woman. 16 of the undocumented individuals were transported to hospitals, five later died.
Each person is charged with one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens resulting in death; one count of conspiracy to transport of illegal aliens resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy; one count of transportation of illegal aliens resulting in death; and one count of transportation of illegal aliens resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy.
"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 peoples’ lives at risk for profit and break our laws cannot hide for long: We will find you and bring you to justice."
If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of life in prison.