Overview
- The guilty pleas, which were entered Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in federal court in Texas, brought to five the number of defendants who have admitted roles in the smuggling conspiracy linked to the Chiapas crash.
- The case traces to a December 9, 2021 operation in which an estimated 166 migrants were crammed into a tractor-trailer that overturned near Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, killing 55 people and injuring dozens more.
- Prosecutors say Jorge Agapito Ventura coordinated parts of the network from the Houston area and provided co-conspirators with falsified scripts and people to pose as relatives so migrants, including unaccompanied minors, could be released by U.S. immigration officials.
- Five co-defendants were extradited from Guatemala in 2025 and Ventura was arrested in Cleveland, Texas, in December 2024; the two men who pleaded guilty July 8 are scheduled to be sentenced on October 6 and each faces up to life in prison.
- Authorities say the multiagency probe led by Homeland Security Investigations and the Justice Department’s Joint Task Force Alpha relied on Mexican and Guatemalan cooperation and highlights prosecutors’ push to disrupt cartel-linked smuggling that traffics and endangers vulnerable families.