Josefa Quino Canil De Zavala and Alberto Marcario Chitic entered guilty pleas on June 11 to charges of conspiracy to bring illegal aliens into the United States, placing lives in jeopardy, causing serious bodily injury, and resulting in death, the Department of Homeland Security said in a press release.
The crash occurred Dec. 9, 2021, north of the Guatemala-Mexico border in the southern state of Chiapas. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas, the two defendants and their co-conspirators packed a large group of migrants—men, women, and children—into a tractor-trailer bound for the United States. The vehicle crashed, killing 56 people and injuring more than 100.
The defendants and three other Guatemalan nationals were extradited to the United States in 2025 to face federal charges. A sixth co-conspirator was separately arrested in Texas.
The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, or ICE HSI, in partnership with HSI Guatemala and HSI Mexico. The case is being prosecuted under the umbrella of Joint Task Force Alpha, the federal government's lead effort targeting human smuggling and trafficking by cartels and transnational criminal organizations.
"These aliens tried to smuggle a large group of illegal aliens into our country, which eventually resulted in a crash that killed 56 people and injured more than 100," said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis in the press release. "Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of ICE, these criminal aliens have pleaded guilty, and they will soon face justice."
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division emphasized the callousness of the operation. "This defendant and her co-conspirators maximized their profits by packing more than 100 men, women, and children into a tractor trailer, which ultimately ended in an accident that claimed the lives of 56 people," Duva said.
Acting U.S. Attorney John G.E. Marck for the Southern District of Texas described the smuggling network as highly organized. "The defendants ran a calculated alien smuggling operation that moved people across borders like a supply chain—recruiting them in Guatemala, collecting their money, and packing them into cattle trucks and tractor-trailers for a dangerous journey through Mexico," Marck said.
Since its formation, Joint Task Force Alpha has secured more than 458 domestic and international arrests of leaders and organizers of smuggling networks, more than 408 U.S. convictions, and more than 357 significant prison sentences.