SAN ANTONIO – A “significant arrest” has been made in a human smuggling incident in 2022 that resulted in 53 deaths and 11 injuries in San Antonio. Guatemalan police on Wednesday said they arrested seven Guatemalans in the case. U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Jaime Esparza will hold a news conference at 10 a.m. Thursday to provide details.

Esparza will be joined by Joint Task Force Co-Directors Ian Hanna and Jim Hepburn. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri of the Department of Justice Criminal Division will also be in attendance.

Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez told The Associated Press the arrests were made possible after 13 raids in three of the country’s departments. They included Rigoberto Román Mirnado Orozco, the alleged ringleader of the smuggling gang whose extradition has been requested by the United States.

“This is a collaborative effort between the Guatemalan police and Homeland Security, in addition to other national agencies, to dismantle the structures of human trafficking, one of the strategic objectives of the government President Bernardo Arévalo in order to take on the phenomenon of irregular migration,” Jiménez said.

The incident on June 27, 2022, was deemed one of the worst human smuggling tragedies in recent history. A large group of migrants were found trapped inside a tractor-trailer on a hot summer day with no water, no air conditioning, and no way out on Quintana Road on the South Side.

Several people have been arrested in connection with the incident.

Luis Alberto Rivera-Leal, also known as “Cowboy,” pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to transport aliens placing lives in jeopardy, federal officials said. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Authorities said Rivera-Leal was part of an organization that smuggled adults and children from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico to San Antonio. He would then drive smaller groups to Houston.

On that fateful June day, the organization coordinated the transport of a group of migrants in a tractor-trailer from Laredo to San Antonio.

The group was smuggled through Interstate 35, and the truck ultimately stopped in the 9600 block of Quintana Road, where the migrants were found.

Riley Covarrubias-Ponce, 31; Christian Martinez, 29; and Juan Francisco D’Luna Bilbao have pleaded guilty to four charges, including one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens resulting in death; one count of conspiracy to transport aliens resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy; one count of transportation of illegal aliens resulting in death; and one count of transportation of illegal aliens resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy.

The driver of the truck, 47-year-old Homero Zamorano Jr. has a case pending. Other co-defendants Felipe Orduna-Torres, 29, and Armando Gonzales-Ortega, 54, also have cases pending.

Covarrubias-Ponce, Orduna-Torres, and others allegedly exchanged the names of the migrants who were smuggled in the tractor-trailer load before the incident occurred, a previous news release states. They allegedly orchestrated the “retrieval” of the tractor-trailer before handing it off to Zamorano, officials said.