By SDCN Editor
Four Mexican nationals were arrested in San Antonio, Houston, and Marshall, Texas, for their alleged roles in a tractor-trailer smuggling incident that resulted in 53 deceased and 11 injured undocumented individuals one year ago Wednesday.
These charges resulted from the coordinated efforts of Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), which Attorney General Garland established in June 2021 in partnership with Secretary Mayorkas, to strengthen the departments’ overall efforts to combat these crimes based on the rise in prolific and dangerous smuggling emanating from Central America and impacting the border communities. JTFA enhances U.S. enforcement efforts against the most prolific and dangerous human smuggling and trafficking groups operating in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
“Human smugglers prey on migrants’ hope for a better life – but their only priority is profit,” said Attorney General MerrickGarland. “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 people’s lives at risk for profit and break our laws cannot hide for long: We will find you and bring you to justice.”
“These indictments are the direct result of a whole of government effort to prevent these horrific crimes and is the largest campaign of its kind in U.S. history. Human smugglers will do anything to turn a profit, and the Department of Homeland Security will continue to do everything possible to stop them,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
According to court documents, between December 2021 and June 2022, 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, are alleged to have participated in a human smuggling organization which illegally brought adults and children from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico into the United States. The alleged smugglers worked in concert to transport the migrants by sharing routes, guides, stash houses, trucks, trailers, and transporters to consolidate costs, minimize risks, and maximize profit. The organization maintained a variety of tractors and trailers for their smuggling operations, some of which were stored at a private parking lot in San Antonio.
The indictment alleges that in the days leading up to June 27, 2022, Covarrubias-Ponce, Orduna-Torres, and others exchanged the names of undocumented individuals who would be smuggled in a tractor-trailer. The four new 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, Texas, address at which Zamorano loaded the migrants onto 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 into the back to be smuggled. Martinez, Covarrubias-Ponce, Orduna-Torres, Rivera-Leal, and Gonzales-Ortega then allegedly coordinated, facilitated, passed messages, and kept each other updated on the tractor-trailer’s progress.
Some of the defendants charged were allegedly aware that the trailer’s air-conditioning unit was malfunctioning and would not blow any cool air to the migrants inside. When members of the organization met the tractor-trailer at the end of its nearly three-hour journey to San Antonio, they opened the doors to find 48 of the migrants, including the pregnant woman, were already dead. Sixteen of the undocumented individuals were transported to hospitals, and five of them died there.
One year ago today, Homeland Security Investigations responded to a mass casualty human smuggling event that occurred in San Antonio, which resulted in the death of 53 undocumented noncitizens from Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras,” said a senior official performing the Duties of Deputy Director PJ Lechleitner of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Each defendant is charged with one count each of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens resulting in death, conspiracy to transport illegal aliens resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy, transportation of illegal aliens resulting in death, and transportation of illegal aliens resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy.
If convicted on the top counts, they each face a maximum penalty of life in prison.
