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A4 U.S. NEWS
Friday 23 august 2024
U.S. government indicts Guatemalan suspect on smuggling

charges over deaths of 53 migrants in trailer

By SONIA PÉREZ D. and JIM was malfunctioning and
VERTUNO would not blow cool air to
Associated Press the migrants trapped inside
A suspect arrested in Gua- during the sweltering, three-
temala has been charged hour ride from the border
with helping coordinate the city of Laredo to San Anto-
2022 smuggling attempt nio. Temperatures reached
that ended in the deaths 100 degrees Fahrenheit
of 53 migrants in Texas, the (38 Celsius) while migrants
Justice Department an- screamed and banged the
nounced Thursday, mark- walls of the trailer for help
ing what U.S. officials called or tried to claw their way
a significant expansion of out, investigators said.
their investigation into the According to the indict-
horrific discovery inside an ment against Miranda
abandoned tractor-trailer Orozco that was unsealed
on a back road. Wednesday, the smugglers
U.S. authorities they will seek had forced the migrants
the extradition of Rigoberto to give up their cellphones
Román Miranda Orozco, before getting inside the
who is charged with six trailer, leaving them no
counts of migrant smug- way to call for help. An un-
gling resulting in death or known powder was spread
serious injury in the deadliest Rigoberto Roman Miranda Orozco, the ringleader of various Guatemalans accused of having around the trailer to pre-
human smuggling attempt smuggled 53 migrants from Mexico and Central America who died of asphyxiation in 2022 in vent the smell of human
Texas, sits in a cell at a courtroom in Guatemala City, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024.
across the U.S.-Mexico bor- Associated Press cargo from being detect-
der. Authorities alleged he ed by patrol dogs at bor-
can be connected to four side of the country to face be tried in Guatemala, Es- and Christian Martinez. der inspection stations.
Guatemalan migrants in charges in the U.S. in con- parza said. Both are from Texas and When the trailer was
the trailer, three of whom nection with the investiga- Carlos Merida, a lawyer for were arrested shortly after opened in San Antonio,
died, and faces up to life in tion. Esparza said seven Miranda Orozco in Gua- the migrants were found. 48 migrants were already
prison if convicted. people have been arrest- temala, said his client did Martinez has since pleaded dead. Another 16 were
“We will pursue you, wheth- ed in the U.S. Guatemalan not accept the charges, guilty to smuggling-related taken to hospitals, where
er you are hiding in the officials announced the instead saying he was a charges, while Zamorano five more died. The dead
United States or you’re hid- arrests of Miranda Orozco regular citizen “who was a pleaded not guilty and is included 27 people from
ing elsewhere,” U.S. Attor- and six more people ac- migrant in the north (U.S.) awaiting trial. Mexico, 14 from Honduras,
ney Jaime Esparza said at cused of helping smuggle for 15 years.” Four Mexican nationals seven from Guatemala
a news conference in San the migrants Wednesday. Those who were charged were also arrested in 2023. and two from El Salvador.
Antonio. Of those, only Miranda previously include Homero Authorities say the men President Joe Biden called
Miranda Orozco, 47, is the Orozco faces extradition to Zamorano Jr., who authori- were aware that the trail- the tragedy “horrifying and
first person arrested out- the U.S. and the others will ties say drove the truck, er’s air-conditioning unit heartbreaking.”q

Pharmacist pleads no contest to involuntary manslaughter in

Michigan deaths from meningitis outbreak

By ED WHITE A Massachusetts pharma- Thursday to involuntary ney Bill Livingston said. fungal meningitis or other
Associated Press cist pleaded no contest manslaughter in the deaths Michigan has been the debilitating illnesses, and
of 11 people in Michigan, only state to prosecute dozens died, according to
all victims of tainted ste- Chin and his boss, Barry the U.S. Centers for Disease
roids that caused a na- Cadden, for deaths related Control and Prevention.
tional meningitis outbreak to the scandal. Cadden, Chin is currently serving a 10
in 2012. too, pleaded no contest to 1/2-year federal sentence
Glenn Chin, 56, will get a involuntary manslaughter for racketeering, fraud and
7 1/2-year prison sentence earlier this year. Second- other crimes connected to
in October, which will be degree murder charges for the outbreak, following a
served at the same time as both men were dropped. 2017 trial in Boston.
his current, longer sentence New England Compound- Cadden, 57, pleaded no
for separate federal crimes. ing Center in Framingham, contest to involuntary man-
“Mr. Chin should not face Massachusetts, shipped slaughter in Michigan ear-
any further incarceration steroids for pain relief to lier this year and was sen-
after his current federal clinics across the country. tenced to 10 years in prison.
sentence, and an unnec- Investigators said the lab Cadden’s state sentence is
essarily burdensome and was rife with mold, insects running at the same time as
Michigan Assistant Attorney General Shawn Ryan speaks in lengthy trial has been and cracks. Chin super- his 14 1/2-year federal sen-
court, as pharmacist Glenn Chin, is seated, far left, in Howell, avoided for the court and vised production. tence, and he has been
Mich., Friday, May 17, 2024. the people of the state of More than 700 people in 20 getting credit for time in
Associated Press Michigan,” defense attor- states were sickened with custody since 2018.q