Smugglers sentenced to prison decades after 3 years of finding 53 migrants on the back of the truck in Texas

Two smugglers convicted of federal charges regarding 53 immigrants died A tractor trailer, cut in Texas, was sentenced to the back of the Texas tractor in Texas in 2022, in prison on Friday.

Felipe must be Ordona Torres, 32, and Armando Gonzalez-Autiga, 55, the first defendant in the tragedy of San Antonio, which is still the most attempt to smuggle human beings in the country across the borders of the United States and Mexico. In March, a jury circulated Only about an hour Before the men condemned that they are part of a human smuggling conspiracy that led to death and injury.

Orduna-Torres, from Description of the prosecutor As the leader of the smuggling process, two lifelong sentences and an additional 20 years were granted in a third census that is presented in a row, according to what I said. CBS Affiliate Kens. Gonzalez-Artiga was sentenced to 87.5 years in prison. Prosecutors, Gonzalez-Poutiga, described the best assistant in Ordon Torres.

Both men were also fined $ 250,000.

The 64 migrants came inside the truck from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico and paid between $ 12,000 and 15,000 dollars to be smuggled to the United States, according to an indictment in the case. They arrived in the border city of Larado in Texas when they were placed in a The tractor trailer with broken air conditioning For three -hour drive to San Antonio.

The investigators said that with the high temperature inside the trailer, she screamed inside and the trailer walls were floundered to help or tried to go out. Most of them eventually. When the trailer was opened in San Antonio, 48 people already died. 16 others were transferred to hospitals, where five others died. The dead included six children and a pregnant woman. Only 11 people survived the car.

At a press conference shortly after the accident, the San Antonio police chief William McManos described the scene as “tragic behind words.”

“I don’t understand how anyone can be harsh to allow this and escape the scene,” Mcmanus He said.

Orduna-Torres and Gonzales-Artega were sentenced to the exact three years of the tragedy.

Investigators said that Orduna-Torres and Gonzales-Arotega worked with human smuggling in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, common roads, evidence, baking homes, trucks and trailers. Orduna-Torres presented the address in Lardo where they will be captured, and Gonzalez-Ortega met there.

Five other men have previously acknowledged a felony in the smuggling case, including the truck driver Homeo Zamoraano Jr. , Who was found hidden near the trailer in some shrubs. Zamuru is facing life imprisonment when sentenced to December. the The other defendant It is scheduled to be sentenced to it later this year.

This incident is the bloodiest among the tragedies that have claimed thousands of lives in recent decades, where people are trying to cross the American border from Mexico. Ten migrants died in 2017 After they were trapped inside a parked truck at the Wall Mart store in San Antonio. In 2003, the bodies of 19 migrants were found in a truck equal southeast of San Antonio.