Seven charged in smuggling migrants in sweltering secret compartment with little water

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Seven people in south Texas have been charged after endangering nearly two dozen migrants who were smuggled into a secret caravan compartment during high temperatures and little water, authorities said. One person remained hospitalized Friday.

Acting on a tip about a smuggling operation, deputies with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office found 26 migrants Thursday morning in a home near San Antonio that Sheriff Javier Salazar called a “shack,” with holes in the floor and no water.

Salazar said he did not know when the migrants crossed the border but believed they drove into the area from the border city of Laredo, about 160 miles away.

The migrants had been in the caravan’s secret compartment for three hours, Salazar said. Temperatures in San Antonio were in the low 90s Thursday afternoon and were expected to top 100, according to the National Weather Service.

Seven men, ranging from 21 to 45 years old, were arrested and are charged with state crimes including human smuggling, engaging in organized criminal activity, operating a stash house and evading arrest.

Twelve people were initially sent to hospital for minor and heat-related injuries, but by Friday only one migrant had been hospitalized for dehydration and “heart-related issues,” according to a Friday news release.

The smuggled people originally came from Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela and Guatemala and their ages ranged from 18 to 54 years. Six of them were women.

San Antonio was the location of the nation deadliest episode of human trafficking in June 2022, when 53 migrants, including eight children, died after being trapped in a sweltering semi-trailer driven out of Laredo.

That trailer had a faulty air conditioner. When authorities found it on a remote road in San Antonio, 48 migrants were already dead and five more died later in hospitals.