San Antonio police officers found Texas Homero Zamorano Jr. hidden in bushes near the abandoned tractor-trailer, according to documents filed in federal court Thursday. Fifty-three migrants were killed, making this the deadliest incident of such trafficking ever recorded in the United States.
US Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat whose district includes eastern San Antonio, told Reuters on Thursday that Zamorano had methamphetamine, a potent synthetic drug, in his system.
Cuellar said he was briefed on the matter by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), but did not know how authorities arrived at that decision. A CBP official, speaking on condition of anonymity, separately told Reuters that Zamorano had methamphetamine in his system.
Reuters was not immediately able to independently confirm the statements of the alleged drug use.
Zamorano, 45, appeared in federal court in San Antonio on Thursday, where charges against him were read. If convicted, he faces a maximum jail term of life or the death penalty and a $250,000 ($NZ403,000) fine, he was told.
He was accompanied by public defender Jose Gonzalez-Falla, who declined to comment on the matter. US Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Chestney said Zamorano would be held in custody until his next hearing, July 6.
Officials described finding the trailer’s back door ajar with bodies stacked in it that felt warm to the touch. In the nearby undergrowth, officers discovered other victims, some of whom died. They found Zamorano hiding near the victims and escorted him to a local hospital for medical evaluation, prosecutors said. Mexican officials said he had tried to pose as one of the survivors.
‘WHERE ARE YOU?’
The truck was carrying migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and was found in a deserted industrial area near a highway on the edge of the US-Mexico border.
Temperatures in the area had soared to 39.4°C that day and authorities who arrived on the scene found no water supplies or signs of working air conditioning in the cargo trailer.
Prosecutors allege that Zamorano colluded with Christian Martinez, 28, who was also charged with human trafficking. Martinez sent a photo of a truckload manifest to Zamorano on Monday, who responded by saying, “I’m going to the same place,” a federal investigator wrote in a court filing Wednesday.
Martinez messaged Zamorano repeatedly over the next few hours but received no response, wrote Nestor Canales, a special agent with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Investigative Division. Martinez sent messages such as “Call me bro” and “Wya bro,” meaning “where you are,” Canales wrote.
A confidential informant from ICE and the Texas Police Department spoke to Martinez after the incident, Canales wrote. Martinez told the informant: “The driver was not aware that the air conditioning had stopped working and that was the reason why the persons died,” Canales added.
Reuters could not reach Martinez for comment. Martinez, who is officially in custody, first appeared in court in the Eastern District of Texas on Wednesday.
STASH HOUSE
In addition to 27 Mexicans, the victims included 14 Hondurans, eight Guatemalans and two Salvadorans, Mexican and Guatemalan officials said. Others, including minors, remain in hospital.
A spokeswoman for Guatemala’s foreign ministry told Reuters it was unclear whether two of the Guatemalans identified Thursday had died Monday or later.
The dead included Pascual Melvin Guachiac, 13, and Juan Wilmer Tulul, 14, both from Guatemala, the State Department wrote on Twitter.
The two were cousins who left home two weeks ago to escape poverty, Guachiac’s mother was quoted as saying by Guatemalan media. Read the full story
Among the victims was Yazmin Nayarith Bueso, who left Honduras almost a month ago. Her brother said she was out of work for a year. “She looked and looked and couldn’t find anything, and she became desperate,” Alejandro Bueso told a Honduran television program on Thursday.
Officials believe the migrants got into the truck on the US side of the border with Mexico.
Surveillance photos captured the truck passing through a border checkpoint in Laredo, Texas at 2:50 p.m. Monday, before the migrant passengers were believed to have boarded.
Cuellar, the Texas legislator, said the migrants likely crossed the border and went to a “stashhouse” before being picked up by the trailer and passing through the Encinal checkpoint. They likely then entered San Antonio and experienced mechanical problems that left them in the back of the truck with no air conditioning or ventilation, Cuellar said.
Another truckload of migrants bound for San Antonio on Thursday evaded the Encinal checkpoint, collided with the back of a tractor-trailer after a chase and killed four on board, according to Mexican authorities. Read the full story
Two other men suspected of involvement in Monday’s incident, Mexican nationals Juan Claudio D’Luna-Mendez and Francisco D’Luna-Bilbao, were charged in US federal court on Tuesday with possession of firearms while illegally in the country. country resided. A preliminary hearing for the couple has been set for Friday.
D’Luna-Mendez’s attorney Michael McCrum said his client is a 21-year-old carpenter who has been in the US since childhood and has “nothing to do with” the tragedy. McCrum said he believed the other accused was his client’s father.
According to documents in the case, the registration of the truck was tracked to the address of the men.
“They’re arresting everyone they can,” McCrum said.