Deadly transport: More trucks are smuggling migrants in trailers

The dangerous and deadly smuggling of migrants inside trailer trucks has proliferated as cartels have taken over, a Noticias Telemundo investigation has found.

LAREDO, Texas — The temperature in Laredo had reached 95 degrees Fahrenheit that day. The truck's trailer was closed and had no refrigeration, according to the driver who referred to himself as John.

He avoided thinking about the people inside the trailer.

“They are no longer human to me … because if you see them like that, you’re going to mortify yourself and that weakness affects you," said John, whose name was being withheld because he fears reprisals from the criminal group that hired him.

He was told he would earn $100,000 for transporting the group of undocumented migrants who were inside the stifling trailer.

As he took off to start the three-hour drive from Laredo to San Antonio in early June 2020, he found himself almost surrounded by local and federal police. Investigators from the Department of Homeland Security were on the trail of a human smuggling organization and had the truck under surveillance, according to court documents in the case reviewed by Noticias Telemundo.