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Jurors in federal court in San Antonio took only about an hour
to convict Felipe Orduna-Torres and Armando Gonzales-Ortega,
finding that they were part of a human smuggling conspiracy that
resulted in death and injury. They face up to life in prison and
have a June 27 sentencing date.
The immigrants had come from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico and
had paid between $12,000 and $15,000 each to be smuggled into
the United States, according to an indictment in the case. They
had made it as far as the Texas border city of Laredo when they
were placed into a tractor-trailer with broken air conditioning
for a three-hour drive to San Antonio.
As the temperature inside the trailer rose, those inside
screamed and banged the walls of the trailer for help or tried
to claw their way out, investigators said. Most eventually
passed out. When the trailer was opened in San Antonio, 48
people were already dead. Another 16 were taken to hospitals,
where five more died. The dead included six children and a
pregnant woman.
“These defendants knew the air conditioning did not work.
Nevertheless they disregarded the danger,” Acting U.S. Attorney
Margaret Leachman for the Western District of Texas said in a
news conference after the verdict Tuesday. Orduna-Torres was the
leader of the smuggling group inside the U.S., and
Gonzales-Ortega was his “right-hand man” she said.
Five men previously pleaded guilty to felony charges in the
smuggling case, including the truck driver Homero Zamorano Jr.,
who was found hiding near the trailer in some bushes. He faces a
maximum sentence of life in prison. Also pleading guilty are
Christian Martinez, Luis Alberto Rivera-Leal, Riley
Covarrubias-Ponce and Juan Francisco D’Luna Bilbao. All five
will be sentenced later this year. Another person charged in the
U.S. remains a fugitive, Leachman said. Several others have been
charged in Mexico and Guatemala.
The incident is the deadliest among tragedies that have claimed
thousands of lives in recent decades as people attempt to cross
the U.S. border from Mexico. Ten immigrants died in 2017 after
they were trapped inside a truck parked at a Walmart in San
Antonio. In 2003, the bodies of 19 immigrants were found in a
sweltering truck southeast of San Antonio.
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