SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A federal grand jury in the Western District of Texas has returned a superseding indictment charging a total of 14 people for their alleged roles in a human smuggling organisation that, prosecutors say, loaded migrants into sealed shipping containers on freight trains — including a May journey in which seven people, among them a 14-year-old from Honduras, died inside a container with no ventilation on a 88-to-92-degree day. The Justice Department announced the indictment on Monday, November 9.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Nov. 9, 2026
According to court documents, on or about May 9, after smugglers illegally crossed seven people from Mexico into the Del Rio area, the organisation transported them to an area near the Union Pacific train tracks in Del Rio. From approximately 1:18 p.m. to 1:25 p.m., while a Union Pacific train was stationary, smugglers using red bolt cutters allegedly cut the lock off a Conex shipping container's door, loaded the seven inside and shut the door. The container was stacked on top of another container, had no ventilation or cooling system, was secured from the outside and could not be opened from the inside, the department said.
The train then departed Del Rio and travelled east along U.S. Highway 90 to San Antonio. When the train arrived in San Antonio, smugglers opened the container door and discovered the people inside in peril; they then fled the scene, allegedly leaving one of the deceased near the railroad tracks, and left the remaining victims in the container. The next day the train departed south along its route to Laredo.
On May 10, a worker at the Union Pacific rail yard in Laredo saw a leg sticking out of a Conex shipping container and, on inspection, six people were discovered deceased inside. Laredo law enforcement contacted San Antonio agents for assistance, and San Antonio law enforcement later discovered the seventh victim deceased and abandoned by the railroad tracks in San Antonio. Four of the deceased were Mexican nationals and three were Honduran nationals, including the 14-year-old child. The investigation revealed that at least one victim had messaged a loved one, pleading for help, the department said.
Who is charged
The 14 defendants are Karina Garcia, 37, of Del Rio; Edson Alejandro Perez, 18, of Del Rio; Seferino Huerta-Casillas, 35, of Mexico; Jonas Ulloa-Aguilera, 25, of Honduras; Mayra Alejandra Huerta, 32, of Del Rio; Maria Norma Neri de Moran, 56, of Mexico; Damian Huerta Analucas, 55, of Mexico; Rosario Cristal Lopez-Saldana, 26, of Mexico; Eric Hernandez, 40, of Eagle Pass; Franklin Williams Ayala Aguilera, 30, of Honduras; Pascual Raymundo Loarca, 34, of Guatemala; Juan Alvaro Membreno-Contreras, 40, of Honduras; Yuri Julissa Cuaresma Paredes, 34, of Honduras; and Mavis Aleyda Escalante Peraza, 38, of Honduras. The Justice Department says the group comprises seven people unlawfully present in the United States, three other non-citizens and four U.S. citizens. All charges are allegations: an indictment is merely an allegation, and every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The counts and the penalties
Eleven of the defendants were first indicted in July. The superseding indictment charges 12 defendants with conspiracy to transport aliens resulting in death and aiding and abetting the transportation of aliens resulting in death — offences carrying a maximum penalty of life in prison. Eleven defendants are charged with seven counts of aiding and abetting illegally bringing aliens to the United States; a conviction on at least three of those counts carries a minimum of five years and a maximum of 15 years in prison. Twelve defendants face one count of conspiracy to bring aliens to the United States causing serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy, carrying up to 20 years, and 11 defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, also carrying up to 20 years.
How the organisation worked, prosecutors say
From at least April 2023 through May 12, 2026, the defendants and others allegedly operated an organisation that used cargo trains to move people further into the United States after they had been smuggled across the southern border from Mexico. Each smuggled person, or their families and friends, paid smugglers in Honduras, Mexico, the United States and elsewhere between $1,500 and $10,000. The organisation was made up of multiple smugglers who worked with other groups, coordinating and using each other's routes, guides, stash houses and drivers. Once inside the United States, people were often housed at stash houses or hidden in the brush along the Rio Grande River near Del Rio before being loaded into shipping containers for the journey inland. In February 2026, the organisation began facilitating the smuggling of the seven people who later died, including the 14-year-old from Honduras, into Del Rio, according to court documents.
The Justice Department says the investigation revealed that at least one of the seven victims messaged a loved one pleading for help before dying. The container they were shut inside — stacked on top of another, secured from the outside — had no ventilation and no cooling system, on a day when recorded outside temperatures ranged from 88 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit.
What officials said
“Seven people are dead as the result of another callous alien smuggling scheme,” said U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas, who noted there have been multiple rail-car smuggling interdictions in recent months and warned people considering paying smugglers that there is “no good outcome” awaiting them. Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Criminal Division said the defendants allegedly showed “no regard for the value of human life” and treated people as cargo for financial gain. HSI San Antonio Special Agent in Charge John A. Pasciucco said the indictment reflects HSI's commitment to pursuing networks that, as alleged, “used cargo trains and sealed shipping containers to move people into the country's interior, placing them in conditions that were inhumane and deadly.”
Background: the case since July
The deadly container journey became public in May, and a federal grand jury first indicted 11 people in July, FreightWaves reported. Karina Garcia, who prosecutors say played a key role in an operation spanning about three years, surrendered at a Del Rio port of entry in August and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Watters in Del Rio; agents had arrested eight defendants in a multi-day operation across central and south Texas, and Mayra Alejandra Huerta was taken into federal custody in Del Rio on May 12. As of FreightWaves' August 19 report, Seferino Huerta-Casillas was the only indicted defendant still at large. Monday's superseding indictment expanded the case to 14 defendants and added the money-laundering conspiracy charges.
Source: FreightWaves, Aug. 19-20, 2026
The investigation
The case was investigated by HSI offices in Del Rio, Laredo, San Antonio, Monterrey (Mexico), Honduras, Houston, Dallas and El Paso and HSI's Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, D.C., together with the U.S. Border Patrol, with substantial assistance from Customs and Border Protection's National Targeting Center International Interdiction Task Force, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Bexar County Sheriff's Office, the Kendall County Sheriff's Office, the Seguin Police Department, the San Antonio Police Department, the U.S. Marshals, ATF, the Union Pacific Railroad Police Department and the Laredo Police Department. Trial Attorney Paige Petersen of the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah Spears, Todd Keagle and Ashley Ellis-Dotson are prosecuting the case for the Western District of Texas, with support from Joint Task Force Alpha and the Homeland Security Task Force initiative.
What is solid
- A federal grand jury in the Western District of Texas has returned a superseding indictment charging 14 people, announced by the Justice Department on November 9, 2026.
- Seven people, including a 14-year-old from Honduras, died after being loaded into a sealed Conex container on a stationary Union Pacific train in Del Rio on or about May 9, 2026, according to court documents cited by the department.
- Eleven of the defendants had already been indicted in July 2026; the superseding indictment adds defendants and a money-laundering conspiracy charge.
What is only claimed
- Each defendant's individual role in the organisation and in the May journey is an allegation in the indictment, not a proven fact; all 14 are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
- Prosecutors' account of how the organisation operated — routes, stash houses, fees and coordination between groups — will be tested at trial.
What happens next
The 14 defendants will now face arraignment and trial proceedings in the Western District of Texas. Those convicted on the transportation-resulting-in-death counts face up to life in prison. For the freight and trucking corridors that cross South Texas, the case is a stark warning of a smuggling method built around sealed cargo: prosecutors say this network ran on cargo trains for three years before the May deaths, and U.S. Attorney Simmons said rail-car smuggling interdictions have continued in recent months — meaning the inspections and yard checks that slow freight are likely to continue as the case proceeds.