SAN ANTONIO — Federal authorities have announced a grand jury indictment against 11 individuals tied to the deaths of seven migrants who perished inside a sealed, sweltering rail shipping container in Texas back in May.
According to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, Justin R. Simmons, six victims were found dead inside a shipping container at a rail yard in Laredo, Texas. A seventh person had been left alongside the tracks earlier in the journey.
“It’s very hard to survive in an un-air conditioned, sealed container with … the temperature being what it was on that day,” Simmons said.
The migrants had boarded a train in the Texas border town of Del Rio, with San Antonio believed to be their intended destination. Authorities say when smugglers opened the container door during the journey, one man fell out. The smugglers then shut the door and fled the scene. Simmons noted it remains unclear whether that individual was already dead at that point.
The six remaining migrants were left sealed inside the container. The following day, the train continued on to Laredo, where a Union Pacific Rail Yard employee spotted a leg protruding from the container and discovered the six bodies inside.
“One of those individuals frantically contacted their family as they were dying from the sweltering heat in that container,” Simmons said.
The victims were from Honduras and Mexico and included a 14-year-old boy. The Webb County medical examiner identified the likely cause of death as hyperthermia, commonly known as heat stroke.
The shipping container was stacked on top of another container, had no way to be opened from the inside, and lacked any ventilation or cooling. Temperatures that day reached between 88 and 92 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
All 11 defendants face two federal charges: conspiracy to transport undocumented migrants resulting in death, and aiding and abetting such transportation resulting in death. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Court documents show the migrants paid between approximately $1,500 and $10,000 each to individuals in Honduras, Mexico, the United States, and elsewhere to be brought into the country’s interior.
One defendant was taken into custody on May 12 in Del Rio, and eight more were arrested over several days last week across central and south Texas. Two of the 11 remain fugitives — one man and one woman. Officials confirmed four of the defendants are U.S. citizens and two hold permanent U.S. residency status. No other nationalities were specified.
Train smuggling has long been a concern for law enforcement. Trains bound for the U.S. frequently slow down or stop in Mexico near the border, giving smugglers an opportunity to hide people or contraband aboard before the train crosses into American territory.
