14 charged in deaths of 7 migrants locked inside container on freight train in Texas
Fourteen people have been charged in a human smuggling case involving the deaths of seven migrants who were shut inside a shipping container on a freight train in Texas, according to federal prosecutors.
The U.S. Justice Department announced the new indictment Monday in the Western District of Texas. Eleven of the defendants were first indicted in July.
The charges include a May smuggling operation that took the victims from the border city of Del Rio through San Antonio and on to Laredo.
The group allegedly used freight trains to move migrants farther into the United States after bringing them across the border from Mexico.
From at least April 2023 through May 2026, the group shared guides, drivers, routes and houses where migrants were kept with other smuggling networks. Migrants or their families and friends paid between $1,500 and $10,000.
The group began arranging passage for the seven migrants in February. On or about May 9, after bringing them across the border, smugglers took them to a stationary Union Pacific train in Del Rio.
They allegedly used red bolt cutters to remove the lock from a shipping container, put the migrants inside and secured the door from the outside.
The container was stacked on top of another and had no ventilation or cooling system. The people inside could not open the door. Outside temperatures ranged from 88 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit that day, and investigators found that at least one victim had sent a message to a loved one pleading for help.
When the train reached San Antonio, smugglers opened the container and found the migrants in distress, prosecutors said. They fled, leaving one victim dead near the tracks and the other six inside the container. The train continued to Laredo the next day.
A worker at the Union Pacific rail yard in Laredo spotted a leg protruding from the container on May 10. Six people were found dead inside. Authorities later found the seventh victim near the tracks in San Antonio.
Four of those who died were from Mexico and three were from Honduras, including the 14-year-old.
Twelve of the 14 defendants face charges of conspiracy and aiding and abetting the transportation of migrants resulting in death. They face up to life in prison if convicted on those charges.
Other charges in the indictment include illegally bringing migrants into the United States, conspiring to smuggle migrants in a way that caused serious injury or put lives at risk, and conspiracy to launder money.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
