People trafficking inquiry after eight found dead in trailer
Authorities called to a Walmart parking lot found eight people dead and 20 others in dire condition in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer, victims of what police said yesterday was an immigrantsmuggling operation gone wrong.
The driver was arrested, officials said. It was just the latest smuggling-by-truck attempt to end in tragedy. In one of the deadliest cases on record in the US, 19 immigrants locked inside a stifling rig died in Victoria, Texas in 2003.
This time, 30 survivors were taken to hospital, where 20 were in extremely critical or serious condition, many suffering from extreme dehydration and heatstroke. Others had lesser injuries.
“They were very hot to the touch. So these people were in this trailer without any signs of any type of water,” San Antonio fire chief Charles Hood said.
Authorities said they were investigating where the immigrants were from.
They did not say whether the rig was locked when they arrived, whether it was used to smuggle the occupants across the border into the US, or where it might have been headed. San Antonio is about a 150-mile drive from the Mexican border.
“We’re looking at a humantrafficking crime,” Police Chief William Mcmanus said, adding that many of those inside the 18-wheeler appeared to be in their 20s and 30s but that there were also what appeared to be two school-age children. He called it “a horrific tragedy”. The temperature in San Antonio reached 38C on Saturday and didn’t dip below 32C until after 10pm.
The trailer didn’t have a working air conditioning system, Mr Hood said. The truck is registered to Pyle Transportation Inc, a Schaler, Iowa, company that didn’t immediately reply to a phone message seeking comment.
The tragedy came to light after a person from the truck approached a Walmart employee and asked for water late on Saturday night, Mr Mcmanus said.
The employee gave the person water and then called police, who found the dead and desperate inside the rig. The driver’s name was not immediately released.
Some of those in the truck ran into the woods, leading to a search, Mr Mcmanus said. Hours after the living and the dead were taken away, a helicopter hovered over the area after daybreak, and investigators were still gathering evidence from the tractor-trailer, which had an Iowa licence plate but few other markings.
The police department said the US Homeland Security Department was taking the lead in the investigation. Investigators checked store surveillance video, which showed vehicles arriving and picking up people from the truck, authorities said.