Authorities in the Texas city of Laredo said at least six bodies were found in a Union Pacific boxcar. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
July 24 (UPI) -- A federal grand jury in Texas indicted Friday an 11-person smuggling ring in connection with the deaths of seven migrants, including a 14-year-old child, whose bodies were discovered in May inside a sweltering shipping container, killed by heatstroke.
Federal prosecutors said the operation had been active since April 2023 and used train cars to smuggle migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border.
In one such crossing, on May 9, prosecutors say the alleged smugglers opened the container during a stop in San Antonio and discovered seven people "in peril."
The container had no ventilation or cooling system, and temperatures that day reached 92 F.
