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Texas Rail Smuggling Death Toll Reaches Seven After Body Near San Antonio Is Linked to Laredo Boxcar

Investigators are reconstructing the train’s path using sensor logs plus a distress call to learn how the sealed car opened.

Overview

  • Authorities identified the man found near tracks in southwest Bexar County as Nereo Aguilar Garcia, 49, and investigators believe he traveled with the group tied to the Laredo boxcar deaths.
  • Six people were discovered in a sealed Union Pacific boxcar at a Laredo railyard, and the Webb County Medical Examiner reported hyperthermia as the cause of death with victims from Mexico and Honduras, including a 14-year-old.
  • Rail data showed a boxcar door opened near Wolf Road in Bexar County, and a joint search by Homeland Security Investigations and Union Pacific police later found Garcia’s body nearby.
  • Sheriff Javier Salazar said the train started in Del Rio and split near the San Antonio area with one section routed to Laredo and another to Houston.
  • San Antonio police received an out-of-state alert about people trapped in a hot railcar, and officials say sealed boxcars can be nearly airtight and deadly, which underscores the urgent, multiagency probe into possible smuggling and any other victims.