E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Driver of doomed Texas tractor-trailer, 45, crossing US-Mexico border hours before pretending to be a migrant when cops found him high on meth: Death toll rises to 53
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Surveillance cameras captured Homero Zamorano, 45, driving the truck across the US-Mexico border

  • It came hours before the driver allegedly abandoned it on a dirt track on the outskirts of San Antonio

  • Texas police said that Zamorano, of Houston, Texas, was 'very high on meth' at the time of his arrest

  • They also claimed that he tried to pose as 'an irregular immigrant to avoid being detained by the officers

The semi-truck driver who transported up to 100 migrants across the southern border before leaving them to die in the sweltering Texas heat allegedly tried to disguise himself as a victim of the tragedy.

Mexican nationals Juan Francisco D'Luna-Bilbao and Juan Claudio D'Luna-Mendez were also taken into custody at a home in San Antonio. They were charged in federal court Tuesday with possessing firearms while residing in the US illegally.

The death toll in the tragedy, which is the deadliest human smuggling attempt in American history, rose to 53 Wednesday. Officials have identified 34 of the deceased, including four Hondurans and two Guatemalan sisters.

Police say the smugglers treated the migrants 'worse than animals' throughout the voyage, leaving them no water or visible means of air-conditioning. Several survivors are in critical condition after suffering brain damage and internal bleeding.

Investigators suspect the migrants paid the smugglers around $10,000 for safe passage to the US.

Investigators suspect the truck had suffered some sort of mechanical problem.

Yáñez also confirmed that Zamorano had been driving a semi with a stolen registration, saying: 'The plates, logos and license were cloned.'

Officials had first linked Zamorano's rig to an Alamo resident. However, investigation proved the Alamo man's truck had been out hauling grain in another part of Texas at the time of the incident.

Medical examiners have potentially identified 34 of the victims, said Bexar County Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores, who represents the district where the truck was abandoned.

But she says the identification process has proven to be a 'tedious, tedious, sad, difficult process' as many victims have been found with stolen IDs or no identification documents at all.

The deceased migrants included 39 men and 12 women. County officials told WOAI-TV five of the victims were under the age of 18. Investigators said they were not young children, but possibly teenagers.

Among the dead are 27 people from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, seven from Guatemala and two from El Salvador, he said. One of the victims had no identification, officials revealed.

Authorities believe the migrants were loaded into the semi-truck in Laredo, a border city, on Monday afternoon.

It appeared the migrants had recently crossed the border and were picked up by the truck to be taken to where they would work, according to a Mexican official.

They were driven 150 miles to San Antonio before smugglers abandoned the vehicle after it suffered mechanical problems.

The surviving migrants will likely be released into the U.S. to pursue asylum or other forms of humanitarian relief, the CBP official and two other law enforcement officials told Reuters. Some survivors of human smuggling in the past have been taken into American custody to testify as witnesses.
Posted by: Skidmark 2022-06-30
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=637060