The Department of Justice (DOJ) said an illegal immigrant and a foreign national pleaded guilty in Texas on Wednesday to human smuggling charges stemming from a December 2021 crash of a truck that killed 55 people.
Agapito Jorge Ventura, 34, who was arrested in Texas in December 2024, and Oswaldo Manuel Zavala Quino, 26, one of five co-defendants extradited to the United States the following year to face charges in the case, each face a maximum penalty of life in prison, the DOJ said on Wednesday.
Ventura is an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, and Zavala Quino is a Guatemalan national who was extradited to the United States to face charges. Prosecutors said the two admitted that they conspired with other human smugglers to transport illegal immigrants, including adults and minors, from Guatemala to the United States….