Death toll in suspected Texas human smuggling case rises to nine

SAN ANTONIO, (Reuters) - At least nine men were found dead yesterday alongside dozens of people discovered inside a sweltering tractor trailer parked at a Walmart store in San Antonio, Texas, in what authorities called a case of “ruthless” human trafficking.

Thirty people, many in critical condition and suffering from heat stoke and exhaustion, were removed from the trailer, which lacked air conditioning or a water supply, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said. Temperatures outside the vehicle topped 100 degrees F (37.8 C).

Another person was found in a wooded area nearby and was also being treated, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas said in a statement. All the deceased were adult males, it said.

“All were victims of ruthless human smugglers indifferent to the well-being of their fragile cargo,” San Antonio-based U.S. Attorney Richard Durbin Jr. said.

“These people were helpless in the hands of their transporters. Imagine their suffering, trapped in a stifling trailer in 100-plus degree heat,” he said.

The truck’s driver, named by the U.S. Attorney’s Office as James Mathew Bradley Jr., 60, of Clearwater, Florida, was arrested in connection with the incident, the statement said.

A criminal complaint will be filed in federal court in San Antonio on Monday, and Bradley is expected to have an initial court appearance shortly afterward, the U.S. attorney said. A multiagency investigation was under way. The bodies of the dead, who have not yet been identified by authorities, were discovered after officials were led to the trailer by a man who had approached a Walmart employee and asked for water.

San Antonio is about 150 miles (240 km) north of the border with Mexico.

Mexico’s government said it deplored the deaths and that it had asked the authorities for an exhaustive investigation.