Guatemalan police arrested seven Guatemalans on Wednesday for smuggling 53 migrants from Mexico and Central America who were left in a trailer in sweltering heat in Texas in 2022 and suffocated to death.
They are the latest arrests following a years-long investigation into one of the worst tragedies involving migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico.
Among the dead were eight children.
Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez told The Associated Press that the arrests were made following 13 raids in three of the country’s departments.
Among them is Rigoberto Roman Milnado Orozco, the alleged leader of a smuggling ring whose extradition the United States is seeking.
Police said in a statement that they seized vehicles and cash during the operation and rescued other migrants.
“This is an effort by the Guatemalan National Police, the Ministry of Homeland Security and other state institutions to dismantle the structures of human trafficking, which is one of President Bernardo Arevalo’s strategic objectives to tackle the phenomenon of illegal migration,” Jimenez said.
Six people have already been indicted.
The truck drivers, identified as Homero Zamorano Jr. and Christian Martinez, were arrested shortly after the migrants were discovered, authorities said.
Both men are from Texas. Martinez later pleaded guilty to smuggling charges. Zamorano has pleaded not guilty to smuggling charges and is awaiting trial.
Four Mexican nationals were also arrested in 2023.
Authorities said the men knew the trailer’s air conditioning was broken and would not provide any cooling to the migrants trapped inside during the sweltering three-hour journey from the border city of Laredo to San Antonio.
When the trailer was opened in San Antonio, 48 migrants were already dead.
Sixteen more people were taken to hospital, where five died.
The deaths included 27 from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, seven from Guatemala and two from El Salvador.
Authorities say the men worked with trafficking rings in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, sharing routes, guides, hiding places, trucks and trailers, some of which were stored in a private parking lot in San Antonio.
Migrants paid the group up to $15,000 each to cross the U.S. border.
The fee would cover up to three entry attempts.
Orozco, the alleged mastermind, was arrested in San Marcos department, Guatemala, on the border with Mexico.
Other arrests were made in the departments of Huehuetenango and Xalapa.
Police identified the gang as “Los Orozcos” because several of those arrested are family members and bear the same surname.
“Through its operations over several years, the organization illegally detained hundreds of migrants of various nationalities and transported them to the United States, collecting millions of quetzales (the national currency),” the Guatemalan government said.
