Two Guatemalan men have pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court in Texas for their roles in a human-smuggling operation linked to a 2021 truck crash in Chiapas, Mexico, that killed 55 migrants and injured more than 100 others. The case is part of a wider investigation into an international migrant-smuggling network.
The two men, Jorge Agapito Ventura, 34, and Oswaldo Manuel Zavala Quino, 26, admitted to conspiring to smuggle migrants, including adults and children, from Guatemala through Mexico and into the United States. Prosecutors said more than 160 people were packed into the cargo truck, which crashed into a bridge after the driver lost control, resulting in one of the deadliest migrant-smuggling disasters in recent history.
The U.S. Department of Justice said five of the six defendants charged in the case have now pleaded guilty. Ventura and Zavala Quino are scheduled to be sentenced on October 6, and each faces the possibility of life imprisonment because of the deaths linked to the smuggling operation.
Federal prosecutors described the tragedy as one of the worst migrant-smuggling disasters on record, saying the smugglers prioritised profit over human life by transporting migrants in dangerously overcrowded conditions. Authorities said they will continue pursuing everyone involved in the criminal network and hold them accountable under U.S. law.