US charges Guatemalan with smuggling 53 migrants into trailer park

A suspect arrested in Guatemala has been charged with helping to coordinate the 2022 smuggling attempt that left 53 migrants dead in Texas, the Justice Department announced Thursday, in a significant expansion of U.S. authorities’ investigation into the horrific discovery in an abandoned truck on a back road.

U.S. authorities said they will seek the extradition of Rigoberto Román Miranda Orozco, who has been charged with six counts of migrant smuggling resulting in death or serious injury in the deadliest human smuggling attempt across the U.S.-Mexico border. Authorities said he was linked to four Guatemalan migrants in the trailer, three of whom died, and could face life in prison if convicted.

“We will pursue you whether you are hiding in the United States or anywhere else,” U.S. Atty. Jaime Esparza said at a news conference in San Antonio.

Miranda Orozco is the first person arrested outside the country to face charges in the U.S. in connection with the investigation. Esparza said seven people have been arrested in the United States. Guatemalan officials announced Wednesday the arrests of Miranda Orozco and six other people accused of helping smuggle migrants. Of those, only Miranda Orozco will be extradited to the U.S. and the others will face trial in Guatemala, Esparza said.

Carlos Merida, a lawyer for Miranda Orozco in Guatemala, said his client did not accept the charges and instead said he was an ordinary citizen “who was in the north (the US) as a migrant for 15 years.”

Those previously charged are Homero Zamorano Jr., who authorities say was driving the truck, and Christian Martinez. Both are from Texas and were arrested shortly after the migrants were found. Martinez has since pleaded guilty to smuggling-related charges, while Zamorano has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

In 2023, four Mexicans were also arrested.

Authorities said the men knew the trailer’s air conditioning was malfunctioning and not blowing cool air to the migrants trapped during the sweltering, three-hour drive from the border city of Laredo to San Antonio. Temperatures reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit as migrants screamed and banged on the walls of the trailer for help or tried to climb out, investigators said.

By the time the trailer opened in San Antonio, 48 migrants were dead. Another 16 were taken to hospitals, where five more died. The dead included 27 people from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, seven from Guatemala and two from El Salvador. President Biden called the tragedy “horrific and heartbreaking.”

Authorities allege the men worked with human traffickers in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico and shared routes, guides, warehouses, trucks and trailers, some of which were parked in a private parking lot in San Antonio.

Migrants paid the agency up to $15,000 per person to cross the border, a fee that would cover up to three attempts to enter the country.

Guatemalan officials accuse the group of harboring and transferring hundreds of migrants to the United States over several years.

Guatemala’s Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez told The Associated Press that the arrests came after 13 raids in three departments of the country. Police also seized vehicles and cash and rescued other migrants during the operations, Guatemalan officials said in a statement.

Pérez in Guatemala City and Vertuno in Austin, Texas, write for the Associated Press.