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Americas|Six Arrested in Connection With Deadly Accident that Killed Over 50 Migrants
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/world/americas/guatemalans-arrested-deadly-migrant-crash.html
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U.S. and Guatemalan authorities said the arrests were linked to a human trafficking ring and a deadly 2021 traffic accident.
Dec. 10, 2024, 3:50 p.m. ET
Five people in Guatemala and one in Texas were arrested on Monday on human smuggling charges linked to one of the deadliest traffic accidents involving migrants in recent history, U.S. and Guatemalan officials said.
On Dec. 9, 2021, a truck carrying at least 160 migrants overturned near Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital of Chiapas state, in southern Mexico. The authorities reported at the time that the truck was speeding when it overturned on a sharp curve. The trailer crashed into a pedestrian bridge and nearby construction, resulting in more than 50 deaths and injuring more than 100 people.
Many of the migrants were Guatemalan.
On Monday, Guatemalan authorities, at the request of the United States, arrested four people in Guatemala who were part of a human smuggling ring, according to U.S. prosecutors. Those taken into custody were: Tomas Quino Canil, Alberto Marcario Chitic, Oswaldo Manuel Zavala Quino and Josefa Quino Canil De Zavala.
A fifth Guatemalan, Jorge Agapito Ventura, was arrested at his home in Cleveland, Texas, prosecutors said.
A sixth person was also arrested, Guatemalan authorities said, though the person’s name was blacked out in the unsealed U.S. indictment.
The arrests occurred on the three-year anniversary of the accident.
The five named Guatemalans were indicted in the Southern District of Texas and charged with conspiracy to bring undocumented migrants to the United States and placing those migrants in jeopardy, causing serious injury and death, according to the indictment.
