Eleven people have been indicted in connection with what federal prosecutors describe as a years-long human smuggling scheme that turned deadly in Texas, where seven migrants died in May after being confined for hours inside a shipping container with no ventilation.
Authorities said the migrants were placed inside the container near Del Rio and then moved by rail across Texas. Six bodies were later discovered in the container at a rail yard in Laredo, while a seventh victim was found near railroad tracks during a stop in San Antonio, prosecutors said.
The dead included four Mexican nationals and three Honduran nationals. Prosecutors said they were unable to get out because the container could not be opened from the inside.
“The ultimate destination for these aliens who began their journey in Del Rio was likely San Antonio. Once the train got to San Antonio, this alien smuggling organization that facilitated the movement of these individuals opened the train car doors,” U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons said during a Friday news conference.
The container where the migrants were found dead at the Laredo rail yard in Texas in May 2026. (U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Texas)
“There was one individual inside that then fell out of the car. They left that individual for dead there by the tracks in San Antonio, closed the door to the container and sent the train on its way, the train ultimately ending up in Laredo, Texas, where the other six bodies were found,” Simmons added.
Among the victims was a 14-year-old child. Simmons also said another person trapped in the container desperately reached out to family members as the intense heat inside became fatal.
The indictment alleges the 11 defendants — four from the United States and seven from Mexico, Honduras or Guatemala — operated the human smuggling network from about April 2023 through May 2026.
The group allegedly used cargo trains to get migrants further into the interior of the U.S. after getting them across the border, per the indictment.
Union Pacific Rail Yard in Laredo, Texas, where six of the migrants smuggled into the U.S. were found dead. (U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Texas)
Prosecutors allege that toward the end of April this year, the organization began facilitating the travel of the group of seven migrants who would later die in the shipping container.
Each of the victims paid the smugglers between $1,500 and $10,000 to be transported from Acuña, Mexico, into the U.S., according to the indictment.
On the afternoon of May 9, the migrants made it into Del Rio, where the smugglers allegedly used a bolt cutter to snap the lock off a Conex shipping container that was aboard a stationary Union Pacific train, prosecutors said.
Once inside the container, the migrants were dealing with outside temperatures of 88 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit, according to investigators.
The train traveled along U.S. 90 to San Antonio, about 150 miles away from Del Rio, where the smugglers caught up with the migrants and found them “in peril,” prosecutors said.
Map of train route from Del Rio, Texas, to San Antonio. (U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Texas)
According to the indictment, the smugglers that were there allegedly left one of the migrants who had already died near the railroad tracks before abandoning the rest of the migrants inside the shipping container as it traveled to Laredo.
The next day, a worker at the Union Pacific Railyard in Laredo saw a leg sticking out of the container, leading to the discovery of the dead migrants, the indictment said.
San Antonio authorities later discovered the body of the migrant who had been left by the railroad tracks, prosecutors said.
Nine of the 11 people charged in connection with the smuggling and the deaths of the migrants have been arrested and are now in federal custody.
Mayra Alejandra Huerta, 32, of Del Rio, was the first to be arrested on May 12.
Karina Garcia, 37, of Del Rio, is one of the defendants that has not been arrested. (U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Texas)
Last week, eight other defendants charged in the indictment were arrested in central and south Texas as part of a Homeland Security Task Force operation.
Those arrested from the U.S. were Edson Alejandro Perez, 18, of Del Rio; and Eric Hernandez, 40, of Eagle Pass, Texas.
Another two defendants arrested were from Honduras — Jonas Ulloa-Aguilera, 25, and Franklin Williams Ayala Aguilera, 30.
Three more were from Mexico — Maria Norma Neri de Moran, 56; Damian Huerta Analucas, 55; and Rosario Cristal Lopez-Saldana, 26.
Finally, Pascual Raymundo Loarca, 34, of Guatemala, was also arrested in the Homeland Security operation.
Seferino Huerta-Casillas, 35, of Mexico, is another defendant who has yet to be apprehended. (U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Texas)
Two of those charged remain at large, including 37-year-old Karina Garcia of Del Rio and 35-year-old Seferino Huerta-Casillas of Mexico.
All the defendants were charged with one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens resulting in death and one count of aiding and abetting transport of illegal aliens resulting in death. They face a maximum of life in prison.
