HOUSTON - Two Guatemalan nationals pleaded guilty to human smuggling charges stemming from a 2021 tractor-trailer crash in Chiapas, Mexico, that killed more than 50 people and injured over 100 after at least 160 illegal aliens were packed into the vehicle, the Department of Justice announced.
Agapito Jorge Ventura, 34, an illegal immigrant living in the Houston area, and Oswaldo Manuel Zavala Quino, 26, who was extradited from Guatemala to the United States in 2025, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bring and attempt to bring an illegal alien to the United States, placing life in jeopardy, causing serious bodily injury, and resulting in death. They face a maximum penalty of life in prison and are scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 6.
“These defendants treated more than 150 people as cargo, packing them into a tractor-trailer for profit with total disregard for human life,” said U.S. Attorney John E. Marck for the Southern District of Texas. “The Southern District of Texas will continue to hunt down smugglers wherever they hide, because there is no place on earth safe enough to escape justice for the lives lost on that Chiapas roadside.”
Five of six defendants charged in the case have now admitted their roles. Daniel Zavala Ramos, 42, pleaded guilty on April 7. Josefa Canil De Zavala, 44, and Alberto Macario Chitic, 33, pleaded guilty on June 11. Zavala Ramos, Canil De Zavala, Macario Chitic, Tomas Quino Canil, and Zavala Quino were all extradited from Guatemala in 2025. Authorities arrested Ventura at his residence in Cleveland, Texas, in December 2024.
According to the Justice Department, Ventura coordinated the smuggling operation from the Houston area. During the previous administration’s policy to parole illegal immigrants into the United States, Ventura facilitated the release of Guatemalan aliens from U.S. immigration authorities by providing co-conspirators, including Zavala Quino, with falsified scripts and instructions telling adults and unaccompanied minors what to say to immigration officials if apprehended. Ventura also arranged for individuals to falsely pose as relatives of apprehended aliens to secure their release.
On Dec. 9, 2021, the conspirators arranged for over 150 illegal aliens, including adults and unaccompanied minors, to be loaded into a tractor-trailer for transport through Mexico. The vehicle crashed north of the Guatemala-Mexico border near Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, killing more than 50 people, including unaccompanied children.
“This crime shows that human smugglers care only about profiting from their crimes, not about the illegal aliens they transport and the life-and-death risks to which they expose them,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Robust border enforcement avoids deadly results like this.”
Acting Executive Associate Director John A. Condon of HSI called the guilty pleas a “clear message” to smuggling networks. “Those who orchestrate and facilitate dangerous human smuggling operations - placing lives at grave risk - will be held accountable,” Condon said. The case was investigated by HSI’s Washington, D.C., Field Office in partnership with HSI Guatemala and HSI Mexico, and is being prosecuted through Joint Task Force Alpha, the department’s lead effort targeting cartels and transnational criminal organizations involved in human smuggling across the Americas.
Sentencing for Ventura and Zavala Quino is set for Oct. 6 before a federal district judge in the Southern District of Texas. The sixth defendant, Tomas Quino Canil, has not yet entered a plea.