San Antonio Express-News

Man pleads guilty in fatal 2022 human smuggling case

- By Gabriella Ybarra

A Mexican national pleaded guilty in a San Antonio federal court for his involvemen­t in the smuggling of dozens of migrants in a sweltering tractortra­iler, killing 53 people.

Riley Covarrubia­s-ponce, 31, pleaded guilty to four counts of transporti­ng and conspiracy to transport undocument­ed immigrants resulting in death and serious bodily injury.

Covarrubia­s-ponce was a member of a human smuggling organizati­on that attempted to smuggle at least 66 adults and children from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico into the U.S., according to a U.S. Attorney’s Western District Office news release.

The migrants were packed into a hot tractor-trailer with a temperatur­e as high as 150 degrees that was found abandoned in June 2022 on the Southwest Side. The deadly journey resulted in the deaths of 47 adults and six children. The event is considered the country’s worst human smuggling disaster.

Covarrubia­s-ponce “coordinate­d with other members of the organizati­on regarding the migrants who were being smuggled to Laredo for further transport to San Antonio,” the U.S. attorney’s office said, and traveled from Houston to accompany the tractor-trailer as it took migrants north on Interstate 35 into San Antonio.

He could be sentenced to life in prison, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Seven people were named in a federal indictment for the incident last year.

In September, Christian Martinez, 29, pleaded guilty to the same charges as Covarrubia­s-ponce. Several others have cases that are still pending, including Homero Zamorano Jr., 47, who is accused of driving the tractor-trailer.

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