Eleven people were named in an indictment on Friday for the smuggling deaths of seven migrants who were hiding inside a sealed rail cargo container in Texas, a U.S. attorney announced on Friday.
Six people were found dead inside the shipping container in a rail yard in Laredo, Texas, while a seventh had been left for dead along the way back in May, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Justin R. Simmons alleges.
“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 in his indictment.
According to the indictment, the group boarded the train in the border town of Del Rio and headed toward San Antonio, where officials believe was the destination. However, when smugglers opened the door, a man fell out so the smugglers closed the door and fled the scene.
It’s not clear if he was already dead by then, Simmons said.
When the smugglers fled, the remaining six people were left locked inside, including a 14-year-old boy, authorities said.
Sealed from within and stacked high, the shipping container offered no ventilation or cooling. Temperatures that day ranged from 88 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit (31 to 33 degrees Celsius), the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
A worker at Union Pacific Rail Yard saw the container and noticed a leg sticking out, later finding the bodies.
“One of those individuals frantically contacted their family as they were dying from the sweltering heat in that container,” Simmons said.
The migrants were from Honduras and Mexico.
The Webb County medical examiner suspected the deaths were caused by hyperthermia, or heat stroke.
The 11 people were indicted on two charges: Conspiracy to transport aliens, resulting in death, and aiding and abetting the transportation of aliens resulting in death. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, Simmons said.
The migrants paid “generally the equivalent of $1,500 -$10,000 to individuals in Honduras, Mexico, the United States, and elsewhere, to be transported into the interior of the United States,” according to the indictment.
One of the defendants was arrested May 12 in Del Rio, and eight more were arrested over several days last week in central and south Texas. Two of the 11 remain at large, including a man and a woman. Officials said four are U.S. citizens and two are permanent U.S. residents. They didn’t specify any other nationalities.
Smuggling on trains has long been a concern partly because trains headed to the United States often slow or stop in Mexico before crossing the border. That creates an opportunity for smugglers or immigrants to climb aboard or hide drugs or other contraband on a train before it enters the U.S.
