11 Charged After 7 Migrants Died Locked in Rail Car Near Del Rio, Texas

A federal grand jury in Del Rio, Texas, has indicted 11 people on multi-count charges tied to the deaths of seven migrants who were locked inside a steel rail container earlier this year.

Six of the migrants were found dead inside the container near Laredo, Texas, in May. A seventh was found dead near train tracks in San Antonio, according to the Department of Justice.

The indictment names seven foreign nationals from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico among the 11 defendants. The DOJ says the group ran a human smuggling operation from at least April 2023 through May 2026, moving migrants who had crossed the border into the U.S. interior using freight trains.

How prosecutors say it happened

The smugglers moved at least seven migrants from Acuña, Mexico, into Del Rio in late April. On or about May 9, the group allegedly used red bolt cutters to cut the locking seal off a Conex shipping container on a Union Pacific rail line near Del Rio and loaded the migrants inside sometime between 1:18 p.m. and 1:25 p.m. They then locked the container shut.

The container had no ventilation or cooling system. Temperatures in the region climbed into the low 90s Fahrenheit that day. Prosecutors said the seven migrants loaded into the container included a 14-year-old child. Prosecutors allege the smugglers locked the migrants inside anyway, preventing them from escaping the heat, and the train departed east toward San Antonio.

When the container was opened in San Antonio, the migrants inside were suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration. Prosecutors allege the smugglers then dumped one deceased migrant on the ground near the tracks and locked the surviving migrants back inside the same container. The train departed the next day for Laredo, where the remaining six were later found dead.

Prosecutors identified four of the deceased as Mexican nationals and three as Honduran nationals. At least one migrant managed to send a message to a loved one pleading for help before dying, according to the DOJ.

The financial arrangement

Migrants or their families paid the smuggling organization between $1,500 and $10,000 per person to be moved from the border into the U.S. interior, according to the DOJ.

Status of the defendants

Two defendants named in the indictment, Karina Garcia and Seferino Huerta-Casillas, remain at large, according to the DOJ. Another defendant, Mayra Alejandra Huerta, was arrested by investigators on May 12 in Del Rio on a charge of harboring illegal aliens; she was indicted on two additional charges. The department's public statement does not detail the custody status of the remaining defendants.

All 11 defendants are 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, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. If convicted, each defendant would face a maximum penalty of life in prison. These are charges, not convictions. Under the U.S. legal system, every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until prosecutors prove guilt in court, and none of the allegations detailed in the indictment have been tested by a jury.

What's unresolved

The DOJ statement does not say what triggered the discovery of the bodies near Laredo, how long the container sat before it was found, or a trial date. The search for Garcia and Huerta-Casillas, who the DOJ says remain fugitives, is ongoing.