human smuggling

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7 More Arrested in Horrific Migrant 'Death Trailer' Case

53 migrants asphyxiated in Texas in 2022

(Newser) - Guatemalan police on Wednesday arrested seven Guatemalans accused of having smuggled 53 migrants from Mexico and Central America who died of asphyxiation in 2022 in Texas after being abandoned in a tractor trailer in the scorching summer heat. They were the latest arrests after years of investigation into the deadliest...

8 Are Dead, 7 Missing After Boat Capsizes Off San Diego

Officials suspect accident happened during a smuggling operation

(Newser) - At least eight people were killed when two suspected smuggling boats approached a San Diego beach and one capsized, and crews are searching Sunday for an estimated seven additional victims, authorities said. A woman on one of the panga-style boats called 911 late Saturday to report that the other vessel...

What We Know About the Migrant Truck Deaths
What We Know About
the Migrant Truck Deaths
the rundown
Jun 28, 2022 10:05 AM CDT

What We Know About the Migrant Truck Deaths

With number of fatalities at 50, it's the worst such smuggling tragedy in reported US history

(Newser) - The discovery of dozens of dead migrants in a truck in San Antonio, Texas, on Monday is the deadliest such incident in US history, reports the Washington Post . As of Tuesday morning, the death toll was at 50, per the AP , but others remained hospitalized. Three suspects are in custody,...

46 Found Dead in 18-Wheeler in San Antonio

16 others hospitalized

(Newser) - Inside an 18-wheeler in San Antonio, Texas, a horrific sight: 46 bodies, and another 16 people still alive but in dire shape. Shortly before 6pm Monday, a worker in the area called police after hearing a call for help from the truck, the Texas Tribune reports. Authorities arrived to find...

It Was 35-Below, and They Weren't Used to the Cold

BBC looks into the deaths of family from India who died trying to walk into US from Canada

(Newser) - They were a young family of four from India who froze to death while trying to walk from Canada into the US last month. The BBC digs into the story of the Patel family to try to understand how this came to pass, and one inescapable fact emerges: It was...

Family That Froze Trying to Cross Border Identified

Family from India included boy, 3, and girl, 11

(Newser) - Update: The four people who died of exposure while trying to walk into the US from Canada during a blizzard last week have been identified as a family from India. Investigators believe smugglers brought Jagdish Patel, 39; Vaishailben Patel, 37; and their children, 11-year-old girl Vihang and and 3-year-old boy...

Searchers Find More Bodies of Migrants

5 bodies have been found off Florida coast after apparent human smuggling boat capsizes

(Newser) - The Coast Guard said Thursday that it had found four additional bodies in its search for dozens of migrants lost at sea off Florida but would suspend its rescue operations at sunset if it doesn’t receive any new information. Homeland Security Investigations officials said they were actively investigating the...

Guy Tries to Smuggle 2 Men Into US in Coffin

Suspicious Border Patrol agents found men, alive, inside

(Newser) - Zachary Taylor Blood, 33, arrived at a Border Patrol checkpoint near the US-Mexico border with an American flag-draped coffin in the back of his van Oct. 26. When asked what he had, he replied, "Dead guy, Navy guy." The agent, who is a military veteran, got suspicious, however,...

Packed Boat Capsizes Off San Diego; 3 Dead

Officials suspect human smuggling; more than 2 dozen are hospitalized

(Newser) - Three people died and more than two dozen were hospitalized when a boat capsized near San Diego. Officials say they suspect the boat was smuggling people into the US, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Parks workers saw people in the water off the coast of Point Loma near the Cabrillo...

Police Discover 90 People Kept in 2 Rooms of House

Human smuggling investigation begins as neighbors take over clothes and food

(Newser) - A human smuggling investigation has been launched after Houston police found more than 90 people huddled in two rooms of a two-story house. Police had gone to the house Thursday night to search it after receiving a tip about a kidnapping, CNN reports. "It was a big surprise when...

Authorities Say SUV in Horrific Crash Entered From Mexico

It came through a breach in the border fence

(Newser) - Authorities say a Ford Expedition crammed with 25 people crossed into the US from Mexico, likely through a breach in the border fence, before it was struck by a tractor-trailer near Holtville, Calif., on Tuesday morning, killing 13 people in the SUV, the Los Angeles Times reports. Surveillance footage shows...

Migrants' 911 Calls Spur Search for Truck: 'We Are Dying'

Local authorities in San Antonio, DHS desperately seeking white tanker that may have 80 trapped

(Newser) - Authorities from the San Antonio Police Department, Bexar County Sheriff's Office, Texas Department of Public Safety, and even the Department of Homeland Security have embarked on a desperate search for a tanker truck that may be crammed with dozens of trapped migrants in a human smuggling operation. Sheriff Javier...

Ex-Arizona Official Jailed for 'Baby-Selling' Scheme
They Hoped to Adopt. They
Walked Into a 'Baby Mill'
in case you missed it
Dec 5, 2020 7:00 AM CST

They Hoped to Adopt. They Walked Into a 'Baby Mill'

Ex-Arizona official jailed for 'baby-selling' scheme prosecutors say spanned 3 states

(Newser) - A former Arizona elected official and adoption lawyer has been sentenced to six years in prison in Arkansas for what prosecutors say was a scheme that involved smuggling dozens of pregnant women from the Marshall Islands into US states to give birth, reports the Washington Post . Paul Petersen, 45, "...

Arizona Official Accused of Adoption Fraud

Paul D. Petersen, Maricopa County’s assessor, allegedly flew women to US to give birth

(Newser) - Dozens of babies were fraudulently placed with adoptive families over a three- to four-year period, authorities say—and an Arizona elected official allegedly masterminded the scheme. Maricopa County Assessor Paul D. Petersen, who was indicted this week in three states on charges including human smuggling, sale of a child, money...

CBP: Girl From India Dies in Desert on Way to US

Death took place in 'dangerous and austere location' in Arizona

(Newser) - The body of a 7-year-old girl believed to be from India was found this week in a remote part of the Arizona desert just over the border with Mexico, a death that a Border Patrol official is calling "senseless," reports the Daily Beast . Per a Customs and Border...

10 Immigrants Died in a Truck. The Driver Just Pleaded Guilty

James Matthew Bradley Jr. could face life in prison at sentencing

(Newser) - The driver of a semitrailer packed with at least 39 immigrants, 10 of whom died, pleaded guilty Monday to making the deadly smuggling run. James Matthew Bradley Jr., 61, pleaded Monday in federal court in San Antonio to one conspiracy count and a count of transporting the immigrants resulting in...

Survivors of Human Smuggling Disaster Face Deportation

Authorities say they're no longer needed as witnesses

(Newser) - Authorities said Tuesday that 22 survivors of a semitrailer found outside a San Antonio Walmart packed with immigrants are no longer needed to testify and being turned over to immigration authorities. Ten people died in the alleged human smuggling operation discovered in July, and the driver of the truck faces...

White Sox Player Ate His Passport on a Plane

Jose Abreu testified he had to get rid of fake doc before landing in US

(Newser) - Some people snack on the peanuts offered on airline flights; Jose Abreu scarfs down beer and pieces of his passport. That's what the first baseman for the Chicago White Sox testified Wednesday in Miami at a trial for a baseball agent and a trainer accused of smuggling Cuban baseball...

20 Children Ditched by Smugglers Perish in Sahara

They were part of a group of 34 migrants

(Newser) - A group of nearly three dozen migrants, most of them kids, paid smugglers to whisk them out of Niger and Nigeria and to a new life to the north—but instead paid the ultimate price. The five men, nine women, and 20 minors were found dead Sunday in the Sahara,...

Smugglers Jailed in Syrian Migrant Boy's Drowning

The photo of Alan Kurdi's body brought attention to refugee crisis

(Newser) - Two men were sentenced to jail this week in connection with the drowning deaths of five Syrian migrants, including the 3-year-old subject of an iconic photo that brought the world's attention to the growing refugee crisis, the New York Times reports. The photo, taken in September, showed young Alan...

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