Texas migrant deaths: Suspected driver charged with human trafficking

The suspected driver of an abandoned lorry which was packed with “stacks of bodies” in Texas has been charged with human trafficking.

Homero Zamorano Jr, 45, was arrested on Monday after he tried to pose as a migrant hiding in a bush who survived the tragedy in which 53 people died, police said.

Many of the migrants - who were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador - died of heatstroke and dehydration while shut in the lorry in the deadliest human trafficking incident in the US.

A second suspect, 28-year-old Christian Martinez, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with a single count of “conspiracy to transport illegal aliens” after federal prosecutors said he was linked to the incident through communications on Mr Zamorano’s phone.

The two men could face life in prison or possibly the death penalty if convicted, the US Justice Department said.

Sweltering temperatures in the area had risen to 39.4C and there were no water supplies found or any working air condition in the truck.

The lorry was found abandoned near a highway on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas, about 160 miles (250 km) north of the US-Mexico border.

No one inside the trailer was conscious and only a dozen appeared to be breathing at first, according to radio dispatch audio from authorities who were first on the scene.

The migrants were found sprinkled with a pungent substance, officials said, which is a way smugglers try to mask the scent of human cargo and evade cainine detection.

Most of the victims in the tragedy were male, with 13 females among the dead, the Bexar County medical examiner’s office said.

Two more men, who are Mexican nationals, suspected of involvement in the deadly smuggling incident were charged with being in possession of firearms on Tuesday.