Bust In Migrant Truck Deaths

Authorities arrested the suspected leader of an immigrant smuggling operation responsible for an operation last month that led to 19 deaths in a stifling truck trailer, federal prosecutors said Monday.

In announcing the arrest of accused ringleader Karla Patricia Chavez, 25, U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby also unsealed a 58-count indictment naming her and 12 others for their roles in the smuggling mission that ended May 14 when a truckload of immigrants was discovered in a trailer abandoned at a truck stop in Victoria, 100 miles southwest of Houston.

Seventeen immigrants died at the scene, and two others died later.

Chavez was arrested Friday in Honduras, the announcement said.

Federal prosecutors said Monday that Chavez was arrested trying to enter her native Honduras from Guatemala. Authorities in Guatemala deported her to the United States on Saturday, and U.S. immigration agents arrested her in Houston hours later.

Chavez was scheduled to make her first court appearance later Monday before a magistrate judge.

Also arrested Friday was Claudia Carrizales de Villa, 34, a Mexican citizen who lives in Harlingen. Prosecutors said she was to appear in a Brownsville federal courtroom Monday afternoon.
Authorities have already arrested at least four others.

Fatima Holloway, 28, identified as riding in the cab of the truck, turned herself in to authorities in Cleveland.

According to court papers, Juan Cisneros, 22, and Erica Cardenas, 23, were arrested by undercover agents in Texas.

All three suspects were charged with transporting, harboring and conspiring to transport illegal immigrants. Their hometowns were not released and it was not immediately clear whether they had attorneys.

Cisneros and Cardenas were also accused of trying to extort between $1,300 and $1,500 from surviving relatives for a son of one of those put aboard the trailer. The boy has since been returned to his mother, who is among 54 survivors in custody of federal immigration agents in Houston.

Truck driver Tyrone Williams, 32, of Schenectady, N.Y., already faces the same charge. He was arrested last Wednesday, hours after 17 people were found dead in and around his trailer abandoned at a truck stop near Victoria, 100 miles southwest of Houston.

The trailer tragedy was the deadliest smuggling attempt in U.S. history. Eighteen immigrants died in a broiling rail car in West Texas in 1987.

The victims died from dehydration, hyperthermia and suffocation. Among the victims was a 5-year-old boy from Mexico.

Williams told authorities two men paid him $2,500 to transport 16 illegal immigrants from the Mexican border and that he didn't watch as the men loaded their charges into the trailer, according to court documents. Authorities say the trailer was carrying at least 70 people from Mexico and Central America - far too many for the poor ventilation.

Williams told authorities that after discovering the dead and dying immigrants, he unhitched the trailer and drove to Houston, according to court documents. His attorney said last week he was looking into whether Williams was properly advised of his rights.

"These kinds of tragedies can be avoided," said Eduardo Ibarrola of the Mexican Consulate in Houston. "Both governments should move into a better legal framework for migration. We have to do that. We also have to improve economic conditions but the important thing now is to prosecute and dismantle this criminal organization."

According to the Bureau of Customs and Immigration Services, there were 320 deaths along the nation's southwest border last year. That was down from 336 in 2001. There were 266 deaths in 1998, 250 in 1999 and 383 in 2000.