HSI Investigation Leads to Guilty Plea by Two Criminal Aliens for Their Roles in Smuggling Accident that Killed 56 People

The Biden open border created a humanitarian crisis that allowed smugglers to profit off the deaths of illegal aliens

WASHINGTON - The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the following statement after an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) led to a guilty plea by two criminal aliens who were involved in an alien smuggling conspiracy that resulted in an accident that killed more than 50 people in a tractor-trailer in Mexico in 2021.

On June 11, 2026, two criminal aliens from Guatemala - Josefa Quino Canil De Zavala and Alberto Marcario Chitic - pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bring and attempt to bring an illegal alien into the United States, placing life in jeopardy, causing serious bodily injury, and resulting in death.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas, the incident took place on December 9, 2021. Canil De Zavala and Chitic and their co-conspirators arranged for a large group of aliens to be loaded into a tractor-trailer so that they could be transported across Mexico and illegally smuggled into the United States. The vehicle crashed north of the Guatemala-Mexico border, killing 56 people - including children - and injuring more than 100.

Canil De Zavala and Chitic, along with three other Guatemalan nationals, were extradited to the United States in 2025 to face charges. A sixth co-conspirator was arrested in Texas.

"These aliens tried to smuggle a large group of illegal aliens into our country, which eventually resulted in a crash that killed 56 people and injured more than 100," said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. "Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of ICE, these criminal aliens have pleaded guilty, and they will soon face justice. This is yet another example of how Biden's open borders created a humanitarian crisis that allowed smugglers to profit off the deaths of illegal aliens."

"This case highlights Homeland Security Investigations' unwavering commitment to dismantling transnational criminal organizations that exploit vulnerable individuals for profit," said ICE HSI Acting Executive Associate Director John Condon. "This horrific tragedy, which claimed dozens of lives, underscores the urgent need to combat human smuggling. The successful prosecution of these smugglers reflects the dedication of our agents and the coordinated efforts of our domestic and international partners to safeguard our borders and uphold the rule of law."

"This tragic event shows that human smugglers do not care about the illegal aliens they come in contact with and transport despite the numerous risks, including extreme heat and dangerous travel conditions," said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. "This defendant and her co-conspirators maximized their profits by packing more than 100 men, women, and children into a tractor trailer, which ultimately ended in an accident that claimed the lives of 56 people."

"The defendants ran a calculated alien smuggling operation that moved people across borders like a supply chain - recruiting them in Guatemala, collecting their money, and packing them into cattle trucks and tractor-trailers for a dangerous journey through Mexico," said Acting U.S. Attorney John G.E. Marck for the Southern District of Texas. "This was an organized, profit-driven network that even handed scripts to children so they could lie to law enforcement if caught entering the United States. That operation ended with the loss of more than 50 lives on a Mexican roadside, and today's convictions make clear that the Southern District of Texas will work to shut down these networks at every level."

HSI's Counter Proliferation Investigations Group in Washington D.C. conducted the investigation in partnership with HSI Guatemala and HSI Mexico. Valuable assistance was provided by HSI's Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, D.C.; HSI Houston; HSI Laredo; U.S. Customs and Border Protection's International Interdiction Task Force; U.S. Border Patrol; Liberty County Constable, Precinct 6; ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston; U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas; and the Criminal Division's Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training. The Justice Department's Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in securing the arrests and extraditions. Guatemalan prosecutors from the Office of Public Ministry and Mexican prosecutors from the Republic of Mexico's Federal Prosecutions Office, with the support of law enforcement officials from both countries, were also instrumental in furthering the investigation.

Senior Trial Attorney Danielle Hickman of the Criminal Division's Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mary Lou Castillo and Jennifer Day for the Southern District of Texas are prosecuting the case, with substantial assistance from HRSP Latin American Specialist/Historian Joanna Crandall.

The investigation and charges are supported and prosecuted by Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), the Department's lead effort in combating high-impact human smuggling and trafficking committed by cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs). A highly successful partnership between the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), JTFA investigates and prosecutes human smuggling and trafficking and related immigration crimes that impact public safety and border security. JTFA's mission is to target the leaders and organizers of Cartels and TCOs involved in human smuggling and trafficking throughout the Americas. The Attorney General has elevated and expanded JTFA to target the most prolific and dangerous human smuggling and trafficking groups operating not only in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, but also in Canada, the Caribbean, and the maritime border, and elsewhere. Led by the Criminal Division's Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and supported by the Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section, the Office of International Affairs, and the Office of Enforcement Operations, among others, JTFA has dedicated Assistant U.S. Attorneys from the Southern District of California; District of Arizona; District of New Mexico; Western and Southern Districts of Texas; Southern District of Florida; Northern District of New York; and District of Vermont. JTFA also partners with other USAOs throughout the country and supports high-priority cases in any district. All JTFA cases rely on substantial law enforcement resources from DHS, including ICE/HSI and CBP/BP and OFO, as well as FBI and other law enforcement agencies. To date, JTFA's work has resulted in more than 458 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organizers, and significant facilitators of alien smuggling and/or trafficking; more than 408 U.S. convictions; more than 357 significant jail sentences imposed, and forfeitures of substantial assets.

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