11 indicted in smuggling deaths of 7 migrants in rail cargo container in
Texas
[July 25, 2026]
By REBECCA BOONE
Eleven people were charged Friday with causing the deaths of seven
migrants by trapping them inside a train container in sweltering Texas
heat after they were smuggled into the United States.
Among the six people found dead inside the shipping container in a rail
yard in the Texas border city of Laredo was a 14-year-old boy. Another
person had been left for dead near the tracks in San Antonio, according
to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, Justin R.
Simmons.
“In that kind of heat, it's May in Texas, ultimately 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 group boarded the train in the Texas border town of Del Rio
intending to reach San Antonio, but when smugglers there opened the
door, a man fell out, so they closed it and fled, Simmons said.
The next day the train departed for Laredo, where a worker at the Union
Pacific Rail Yard saw a leg sticking out and found the other 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 migrants were from Honduras and Mexico and included a 14-year-old
boy, authorities said. The Webb County medical examiner suspected the
deaths were caused by hyperthermia, or heat stroke.
The shipping container, which was stacked on top of another container,
could not be opened from the inside and had no ventilation or cooling
system. The temperatures that day ranged from 88 to 92 degrees
Fahrenheit (31 to 33 degrees Celsius), the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
The group was indicted on two charges: Conspiracy to transport aliens,
resulting in death, and aiding and abetting the transportation of aliens
resulting in death. Each is punishable by up to 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.
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In this image taken from video footage provided by KGNS, Union
Pacific signage is displayed at a rail yard in Laredo, Texas, May
10, 2026. (KGNS via AP, File)
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. A man and a woman remain at large. Officials said four are
U.S. citizens, two are permanent U.S. residents, and five were in
the U.S. without legal status. They didn’t specify the nationalities
of the five.
Smuggling on trains has long been a concern partly because
U.S.-bound trains often slow or stop in Mexico before crossing the
border, creating opportunities for smugglers or migrants to climb
aboard or hide drugs or other contraband. The trains also are used
to smuggle people beyond the reach of officers patrolling the
border.
In 2023, two people were found dead who were among 17 people in two
rail cars near Knippa, Texas, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west
of San Antonio and less than 100 miles (161 kilometers) from the
U.S. border with Mexico.
And two smugglers were sentenced to life in prison last year for
what remains the nation’s deadliest human smuggling attempt across
the U.S.-Mexico border. They were convicted in the deaths of 53
migrants inside a sweltering tractor-trailer in Texas in 2022.
Laredo is a particularly busy land port for U.S.-Mexico trade and a
common nexus for the illegal movement of people. About 40 people
were encountered daily in March crossing illegally by Border Patrol
agents in the sector, making it the third busiest among nine along
the border, according to the agency’s statistics.
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