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Alf

Veteran Member
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There isn't a whole lot on this story yet. It looks like this might have been an organized human-smuggling operation, though.

Published July 23, 2017
Fox News
Eight people, including two children, were found dead Sunday morning inside a tractor-trailer in the parking lot of a Walmart store in San Antonio, according to reports.

Fox News confirmed the death total from the city’s fire department.

The driver of the rig, who was not identified, has been taken into custody, authorities said.

A total of 38 people had been inside the trailer, authorities said, with 20 people found in a “serious” medical condition, including dehydration.

Further details were not immediately available. Investigators from the U.S. Department of Homeland security were involved in the case.
Link

--Al
 
A little more:
By ERIC GAY
Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Authorities called to a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio overnight found eight people dead and 20 others in dire condition in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer, in what police are calling a horrific case of immigrant smuggling.

The truck's driver was arrested and all 28 survivors were taken to hospitals, where 20 were in extremely critical or serious condition, authorities said. Eight others were being treated for lesser injuries, including heat stroke and dehydration. Their nationalities weren't yet known.

Temperatures in San Antonio reached 101 degrees (38 Celsius) on Saturday and didn't dip below 90 degrees (32 C) until after 10 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. The truck's trailer also didn't have a working air conditioner system, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said in a news briefing.

"They were very hot to the touch. So these people were in this trailer without any signs of any type of water," he said. "It was a mass casualty situation for us."

A person from the truck initially approached a Walmart employee in the parking lot and asked for water late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, police Chief William McManus said. The employee gave the person the water and then called police, who found the dead and desperate inside the truck.
Link

--Al
 
organized human-smuggling operation, though.

Sounds like a dis-organized smuggling operation to me. Some moron from the truck asks an employee for water instead of just going in and discreetly buying a pack? FUcking begging for it.

Seems pretty fucking stupid to try this in the middle of summer. People musth ave been hopelessly desperate living in that shit hole country of Mexico.

Damn shame. No doubt about it it would take 300 lazyass, bad attitude having American workers to make up for the 38 here, some of whom died and the rest im sure will be bused back to Mexico. Damn tragic.
 
Sounds like a dis-organized smuggling operation to me.
Well, for a very generous definition of "organized".

A little more information:
Based on initial interviews with survivors of the weekend tragedy, more than 100 people may have been packed into the back of the 18-wheeler at one point in its journey, ICE acting Director Thomas Homan said.

Thirty-nine were inside when rescuers arrived, and the rest were believed to have escaped or hitched rides to their next destination, officials said.

[...]

Federal prosecutors said James Mathew Bradley Jr., 60, of Clearwater, Florida, was taken into custody and would be charged on Monday. The U.S. Homeland Security Department stepped in to take the lead in the investigation from San Antonio police.

[...]

The truck had an Iowa license plate and was registered to Pyle Transportation Inc. of Schaller, Iowa. A company official did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
Link

--Al
 
... "a horrific tragedy" discovered in fucking Walmart parking lot? For Walmart, that's a standard day.
 
Last edited:
(CNN)At least nine people are dead after a phone call from a Walmart employee led to the discovery of dozens of undocumented immigrants severely injured in the back of a tractor-trailer in Texas early Sunday, according to federal authorities.

More than 100 undocumented immigrants may have been sandwiched in the back of the 18-wheeler during the journey, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Thomas Homan said, citing initial interviews with survivors.
"Checking the video from the store, we found there were a number of vehicles that came in and picked up a lot of the folks that were in that trailer that survived the trip," San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said. "We are looking at a human trafficking crime here."


The employee told authorities the trailer was parked at a Walmart lot in San Antonio. A man who was in it asked the employee for water.
The employee brought water for the man, then called police and asked them to conduct a welfare check, McManus said.
That's when authorities discovered eight bodies and 31 people suffering from various injuries, authorities said. A ninth victim later died at a hospital, ICE officials said.
170723095338-02-san-antonio-tx-truck-0723-exlarge-169.jpg


San Antonio officers investigate the scene where people were found dead in a tractor-trailer outside a Walmart.

"We quickly called a 'mass casualty incident' and had about 29 units arrive out there and start transporting people," San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said.
"With heat strokes or heat injuries, a lot of them are going to have some irreversible brain damage."
A heatstroke can cause swelling of the brain and other vital organs, possibly causing permanent damage, if a person's body temperature isn't quickly lowered, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Officials said the air conditioner in the trailer was not working. And the high temperature in San Antonio on Saturday was 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).
"Unfortunately, some of them were severely overheated, and that was a refrigerated truck with no refrigeration," Hood said. "So the inside of the truck was just austere condition that nobody was going to survive in it. So we were very fortunate that they were found."
Two of the people hospitalized are 15 years old, the fire spokesman said.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/23/us/san-antonio-bodies-found-in-trailer/index.html
 
Now arriving at Walmart...

Direct to you from the border.
Illegal immigrants by the truckload in our
Sweltering Seasonal Summer Sale!

Huge discounts on...
Gardeners
Landscapers
Food Service
Hospitality
Produce Field Workers
Construction Labourers
...and much much more!

Supplies are limited.
You must act fast.
Before they are gone.

Get them before its...
too late.
 
Driver in trafficking scheme says bodies lay on floor 'like meat'

07/24/17

The driver of a sweltering 18-wheeler charged Monday with the horrific human trafficking operation in San Antonio that left 10 men dead told investigators he saw bodies in the trailer “just lying on the floor like meat.”

James Matthew Bradley Jr., 60, of Clearwater, Fla., faces life in prison for one count of transporting illegal aliens.

The immigrants in the trailer with no working air conditioner, some of whom were from Mexico and Guatemala, desperately tried to breathe through a small hole in the trailer as people began passing out in the South Texas heat, a criminal complaint charged.

The same day Bradley was presented in federal court, authorities clarified that 39 people were found in or near the truck in a Walmart parking lot. Eight died inside the trailer — two others died at a hospital. At least 20 were suffering from severe dehydration and heat exposure because they were trapped in the trailer with no working air conditioning.

...The complaint detailed the events leading up to the grim discovery in a Walmart parking lot Sunday evening.


Immigrants said as many as 200 people had been in the trailer. They had been smuggled across the Rio Grande in different groups taken to different “stash houses” then loaded into the trailer, authorities said.

Bradley told investigators he was unaware of his human cargo and said he’d been hired to deliver the trailer from Schaller, Iowa, to Brownsville, Texas.

aptopix-tractor-trailer-trafficking-deaths.jpg

Federal prosecutors said they planned to bring charges against James Mathew Bradley Jr. (left), though they would not immediately confirm he was the driver.
(ERIC GAY/AP)
One undocumented immigrant told authorities a smuggler had said the trailer was refrigerated and “not to worry about the trip” that lasted around one day, according to the complaint.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...s-trapped-truck-san-antonio-article-1.3351443
 
Zetas Cartel linked to fatal mass human smuggling case in San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO - One of the 29 survivors rescued from the back of an un-air conditioned trailer parked in a southwest San Antonio Walmart early Sunday morning gave a first-hand account of their harrowing journey from Mexico into the U.S.

The undocumented immigrant told federal investigators how he and more than two dozen others crossed the Rio Grande in a raft, ferried by people connected to the Zetas Cartel, and spent more than 15 hours in a cramped, pitch black big rig trailer with 70 other people without food, water or fresh air.


https://www.wsls.com/news/national/...atal-mass-human-smuggling-case-in-san-antonio
 
The truck had an Iowa license plate and was registered to Pyle Transportation Inc. of Schaller, Iowa. A company official did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
I found a little more info, another morsel of data, that is interesting in light of what I highlighted above:
SCHALLER, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa trucking company linked to the deadly case of immigrant smuggling in Texas has a history of safety and tax violations and financial problems.

Records show that Pyle Transportation Inc. failed to pay federal employment and trucking taxes for years, faced lawsuits over unpaid wages owed to drivers, and has been ordered to pay penalties for violations of federal safety rules.
Then again, though, there is this (from the same article):
The company and its driver insist they know nothing about how dozens of immigrants became packed inside the trailer of its 18-wheeler found in the searing heat outside a San Antonio Walmart over the weekend.

Link

--Al
 
Surely this driver is going to get some years knocked off for spilling the beans on who else was involved and pulling the strings here.

Def dont believe for a second this company isnt involved somehow.
 
Something just struck me.
Bradley told investigators that the trailer had been sold and he was transporting it from Iowa to Brownsville, Texas

[...]

Bradley allegedly told investigators that he knew the trailer refrigeration system didn’t work
So the alleged buyer of this trailer was okay with having to dump money into it before he could use it to haul refrigerated freight, on top of the premium he paid for the reefer in the first place?

--Al
 
I can't bring myself to believe that he didn't know they were in there...but then again, I kind of NEED to believe that...because it's harder to believe someone could be that indifferent to the suffering of others :(. My heart hurts :(
 
Part of me has a hard time feeling sorry for them. They are in the process of breaking the law. Ship them back immediately.
 
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Dr...icted-for-10-Passengers-Deaths-440841003.html
The driver of a tractor-trailer packed with people illegally entering the United States in an alleged human smuggling operation was indicted Wednesday on charges related to the deaths of 10 people inside.

James Matthew Bradley Jr. was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in San Antonio on five counts, including a count of illegally transporting immigrants for financial gain, resulting in death, and a separate count of conspiracy to transport immigrants illegally, resulting in death.

Those charges carry the possibility of the death penalty.
[....]
Bradley was also indicted on two counts related to illegally transporting immigrants resulting in serious bodily injury, and one count of firearm possession by a convicted felon. The indictment alleges Bradley, who pleaded guilty in 1997 to a felony domestic violence case in Colorado, was in possession of a .38-caliber pistol.
[....]
Twenty-two survivors have been released from the hospital and are being held in detention as potential witnesses against Bradley. Two survivors remained hospitalized as of Wednesday.

Four of the survivors testified before the grand jury, said Michael McCrum, a San Antonio attorney appointed to represent them.
[....]
"They came to America wanting just to work, as they could not find a job in Mexico that could support their families. And yet, the circumstances of what happened brought them to this situation," McCrum said in an email. "They were asked to tell the truth about how they suffered, and they did."

Investigators have said they believe Bradley was part of a broader conspiracy funding and planning the smuggling operation, though they have not announced any additional arrests or charges.
[....]
Human smuggling operations often linked to Mexican drug cartels are a major problem for law enforcement along the United States' southern border. Border Patrol agents in West Texas found 20 people crammed in a semitrailer just this week, one day after police in the border city of Edinburg discovered 16 people inside another trailer.

Most of the people known to have been on board were from Mexico. Others are believed to have fled from the truck after it stopped.
[....]
According to the U.S. Attorney, seven were from Mexico: 27-year-old Ruben Hernandez Vargas; 21-year-old Osbaldo Rodriguez Cerda; 26-year-old Jorge Reyes Noveron; 36-year-old Jose Rodriguez Aspeitia; 37-year-old Benjamin Martinez Arredondo; 24-year-old Ricardo Martinez Esparza; and Mariano Lopez Cano, whose age is unknown. Another person, Frank Fuentes, was from Guatemala. A Guatemalan diplomat previously told the AP that Fuentes had been deported and was trying to return to his family in Maryland.

Lopez Cano and Martinez Esparza died at an area hospital.
 
Surprised hes getting hit with all that. Guess he didnt make a deal, wonder if he even knows enough to make a deal. Youd think he could finger the fuckers pulling the strings for this shit.

Part of me has a hard time feeling sorry for them. They are in the process of breaking the law. Ship them back immediately.

You care that strongly about the law they were breaking? There's plenty of laws where i wouldnt sympathize if someone died while breaking it, stuff like assault or burglary or drug usage. But merely trying to enter America in search/hope of a better life, of a job? Im not seeing the reason for the outrage or disdain. Seriously, who gives a fuck if somebody wants to come work in meat packing plants or roofing?

Twenty-two survivors have been released from the hospital and are being held in detention as potential witnesses against Bradley. Two survivors remained hospitalized as of Wednesday.
Four of the survivors testified before the grand jury, said Michael McCrum, a San Antonio attorney appointed to represent them.

Suckers. They should refuse to play ball unless the gov't makes em a deal. Green card/ability to work at least for a couple years, chance at getting ball rolling on attaining citizenship, or this fucker walks.
 
Truck Driver Pleads Guilty
James Bradley, Jr. pleaded guilty Monday afternoon to smuggling undocumented immigrants in the back of his semi truck — a journey that resulted in ten deaths. The federal charges leave Bradley facing life behind bars.

[...]

Bradley initially claimed he had no idea he was transporting people until he stopped for a bathroom break at Walmart, even though victims said they were yelling and banging from inside of the trailer throughout the ride. On Monday, however, he told U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad that he had, in fact, conspired to transport the immigrants for financial gain.

[...]

In admitting his guilt, Bradley also forfeited his semi truck, a pistol, and $5,600. His sentencing hearing will take place on Jan. 22, 2018.

[...]

https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily...mpaign=rightrail&utm_content=MorebyThisAuthor
 
The driver of a big rig involved in the deaths of 10 smuggled immigrants in Texas last year was sentenced Friday to life in prison.

James Matthew Bradley Jr. pleaded guilty in October to a count of transporting the immigrants resulting in death and a conspiracy count. If he had gone to trial and been convicted, he could have faced the death penalty. The life term Bradley received from senior U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra doesn't include the possibility of parole.

At least 39 immigrants, most from Mexico and Guatemala, were inside the sweltering trailer found by San Antonio police last July in a Walmart parking lot. Its refrigeration system wasn't working and outside temperatures that day reached 101 degrees (more than 38 degrees Celsius). Eight people died inside the trailer and two others died after being hospitalized.

"I am so sorry it happened," Bradley said in a video statement that his lawyers played in court Friday, the San Antonio Express-News reported. "There's not a day or night that goes by that I don't relive this scene."

Ezra called Bradley's actions "extreme by any measure," according to the newspaper.

Bradley initially denied knowing anyone was inside the trailer, telling investigators he was transporting it for his boss from Iowa to Brownsville, which is on Texas' border with Mexico. But he raised suspicions by saying he had driven to another border city, Laredo, Texas, and stopped twice there before driving back to San Antonio, in the opposite direction from Brownsville.

Those who survived the ordeal described hellish conditions , saying they were reduced to crying and pleading for water due to the stifling heat. They eventually had to take turns breathing through a single hole in the side of the trailer.
http://www.fox4news.com/news/texas/driver-in-deadly-immigrant-smuggling-case-gets-life-sentence
 
Yeah so Trump would have us believe that all these illegals just walk across the border and he is going to build a silly wall to stop it, but Americans are hauling them in for profit.
 
Either this guy is one stone cold badass or the folks who hired him run an incredibly tight, well oiled operation.

I figured for sure he would plea down while ratting out others involved. But nope. He either legit didnt know fucking anything, or he would rather rot than snitch(which i highly doubt to be the case).

I suppose it is also possible that the govt simply didnt give a shit. These are illegal immigrants afterall, why waste investigatory efforts on finding out the kingpins of operations like these?
 
“I’m sorry it happened” — he still won’t take responsibility for his actions. Doesn’t matter, LWOP will give him plenty of time for remorse.
 
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