Guatemala City — Guatemalan police arrested seven Guatemalans on Wednesday accused of smuggling 53 migrants from Mexico and Central America. died of asphyxiation in 2022 in Texas after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer in the scorching heat of summer.
These are the latest arrests in a years-long investigation into the deadliest tragedy of migrants smuggled across the border with Mexico. The victims included eight children.
Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez told The Associated Press that the arrests were made possible by 13 operations in three departments across the country. Among those arrested was Rigoberto Román Miranda Orozco, the alleged leader of the smuggling ring whose extradition has been requested by the United States.
Moses Castillo / AP
Police also seized vehicles and cash and rescued other migrants during the operations, it said in a statement.
“This is a collaborative effort between the Guatemalan Police and Homeland Security, in addition to other national agencies, to dismantle the structures of human trafficking, one of the strategic objectives of the government of President Bernardo Arévalo to confront the phenomenon of irregular migration,” Jiménez said.
Six people have already been charged.
Homero Zamorano Jr., who authorities said was the truck driver, and Christian Martinez were arrested shortly after the migrants were found. Both are from Texas. Martinez later pleaded guilty to migrant smuggling charges. Zamorano has pleaded not guilty to migrant smuggling charges and is awaiting trial. Four Mexican nationals were also arrested in 2023.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement at the time that “human smugglers prey on migrants’ hopes for a better life, but their only priority is profit. Tragically, 53 people who were loaded onto a tractor-trailer in Texas and endured hours of unimaginable cruelty lost their lives to this callous scheme. 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.”
Authorities said the men knew the trailer’s air conditioning system was malfunctioning and not blowing cool air to the migrants trapped inside during the sweltering three-hour drive from the border city of Laredo, Texas, to San Antonio.
Eric Gay / AP
By the time the convoy opened in San Antonio, 48 migrants had already died. Another 16 were taken to hospital, where five more died. The victims included 27 Mexicans, 14 Hondurans, seven Guatemalans and two Salvadorans.
Authorities said the men worked in human smuggling operations in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico and shared routes, guides, hideouts, trucks and trailers, some of which were stored in a private parking lot in San Antonio.
The migrants paid the organization up to $15,000 each to be escorted across the U.S. border. The fee would cover up to three attempts to enter the country.
Orozco, the alleged leader of the gang, was arrested in the Guatemalan department of San Marcos, on the border with Mexico. The other arrests took place in the departments of Huehuetenango and Jalapa. Police identified the gang as “Los Orozcos” because several of those arrested are members of the same family and have that last name.
“This organization illegally housed and transferred 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.
