Prosecutors add three defendants in Texas smuggling case tied to seven deaths

Federal prosecutors charged 14 people in an alleged for-profit human-smuggling conspiracy linked to the deaths of seven migrants, including a 14-year-old, in May 2026. Prosecutors allege migrants from Mexico and Honduras were moved using guides, stash houses and freight trains, then confined in an unventilated, uncooled shipping container in the Texas heat. The migrants were reportedly found in distress in San Antonio, where the smugglers allegedly fled; six bodies were later found in the container at a Laredo rail yard and a seventh near San Antonio tracks. The superseding indictment adds three defendants to the 11 previously charged; the defendants include four U.S. citizens, seven people described in court filings as being in the country illegally, and three other non-citizens. Some defendants also face additional smuggling-related and money-laundering counts, and prosecutors say some charges carry potential life sentences.