Two more men have been charged in the US in a deadly human trafficking incident in 2021 | Human Rights Issues

Five Guatemalans are now facing charges of migrant smuggling in connection with the deaths of 55 migrants.

Two other Guatemalan men have been indicted in the United States on human trafficking charges that led to a 2021 car crash in southern Mexico. killing 55 refugees.

Jorge Agapito Ventura, 34, and Oswaldo Manuel Zavala Quino, 26, pleaded guilty in a Texas court on Wednesday to conspiring to smuggle adults and unaccompanied minors from Guatemala north to the US. Both will be sentenced to life in prison in October.

“These defendants took over 150 people as cargo, loading them in a tractor trailer for profit without regard for human life,” US Attorney John E Marck said in a statement.

The charges stem from an incident in December 2021 that authorities say is one of the worst human trafficking cases ever.

At least 166 migrants were packed into a US-bound trailer, so cramped that many had only standing room, according to survivors. The car overturned and fell under a bridge near Tuxtla Gutierrez, in southern Mexico in Chiapas.

55 people were killed, including a 16-year-old girl, and more than 100 were injured, according to the United States Department of Justice.

At the time, authorities said the driver, who fled the scene, appeared to be speeding when he lost control of the vehicle while driving on a sharp curve.

Critics say so Ventura and Zavala Quino were part of a conspiracy to smuggle immigrants into the US for ransom.

According to prosecutors, Ventura coordinated parts of the operation from his home in Cleveland, Texas, a suburb of Houston.

He allegedly provided his accomplices — including Zavala Quino — with false documents that immigrants could report to U.S. immigration officials if caught. He also made it mandatory for people to identify themselves as family members, if the migrants are detained and need relatives they can refer to for release, according to critics.

Zavala Quino was extradited from Guatemala to the US in 2025 to face charges, while Ventura was arrested in Texas in December 2024.

Most of the 2021 tractor-trailers left impoverished areas in Guatemala, hoping to find work in the United States. Families told Reuters news agency that some had sold their homes to pay smugglers, believing the dangerous journey would give them a chance at a better future.

With Wednesday’s plea, five of the six Guatemalans accused of the crime have pleaded guilty.

Three other defendants pleaded guilty earlier this year, while one case remains pending.