Two more men plead guilty in US for deadly 2021 human-smuggling truck crash

Five Guatemalan nationals have now plead guilty in the migrant smuggling case linked to the deaths of 55 migrants.

Two more Guatemalan men have pleaded guilty in the United States to charges related to a human smuggling operation that resulted in a 2021 truck crash in southern Mexico, killing 55 migrants.

Jorge Agapito Ventura, 34, and Oswaldo Manuel Zavala Quino, 26, admitted in a Texas federal court on Wednesday that they conspired to smuggle adults and unaccompanied children from Guatemala north to the US. Both face up to life in prison when they are sentenced in October.

“These defendants treated more than 150 people as cargo, packing them into a tractor-trailer for profit with total disregard for human life,” US Attorney John E Marck said in a statement.

The charges stem from a December 2021 incident that authorities have described as one of the deadliest human smuggling tragedies in recent memory.

About 166 migrants had been packed into a tractor-trailer headed for the US, squeezed so tight that most only had room to stand, according to survivors. The truck overturned and crashed into the base of a pedestrian bridge near Tuxtla Gutierrez, in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

Fifty-five people were killed, including a 16-year-old girl, and more than 100 were injured, according to the US Department of Justice.

At the time, officials said the driver, who fled the scene, appeared to have been speeding when he lost control of the vehicle while navigating a sharp curve.

Prosecutors say Ventura and Zavala Quino were part of a conspiracy to smuggle migrants into the US in exchange for payment.

According to prosecutors, Ventura coordinated parts of the operation from his home in Cleveland, Texas, part of the Houston metropolitan area.

He allegedly gave co-conspirators — including Zavala Quino — scripts with false information that migrants could recite to US immigration officials if they were caught. He also arranged for people to pose as relatives, should the migrants be detained and need family to advocate for their release, according to prosecutors.

Zavala Quino was extradited from Guatemala to the US in 2025 to face the charges, while Ventura was arrested in Texas in December 2024.

Many of those on board the tractor-trailer in 2021 had left impoverished communities in Guatemala, hoping to find work in the United States. Families told the news agency Reuters that some had sold their homes to pay the smugglers, believing the dangerous journey offered their best chance at a better future.

With Wednesday’s guilty pleas, five of the six Guatemalan nationals charged in the case have now admitted to their roles.

Three other defendants pleaded guilty earlier this year, while one case remains pending.