SEATTLE - More than a month after two tractor-trailers collided on Interstate 10, near Tucson, Arizona, a truck driver has been federally charged with transportation of illegal aliens resulting in death.
On July 24, Moises Gabriel Castillo, a U.S. citizen, allegedly plowed into the back of another truck 11:30 p.m. Court records show Arizona state troopers responding to the scene found an unresponsive male lying face down on the ground near the passenger side of Castillo's semi-truck.
First responders pronounced the man dead on the scene and was later identified as a Mexican national with no legal authorization to be in the United States.
Apart from the dead individual, three other undocumented migrants were found at the crash site. Castillo and all three migrants were transported to Tucson-area hospitals due to injuries.
After special agents with Homeland Security Investigations interviewed Castillo about the migrants, court records showed the driver lied to them by saying they were not traveling with him and that he did not know the injured people.
That response prompted authorities to reconstruct events with the help of the witnesses that were suspectedly riding with Castillo prior to the crash.
According to Border Report, in a criminal complaint filed on Sept. 6 in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, Francisco Nuñez Cortez and Lucio Perez Gomez told authorities they were part of a group of four migrants picked up by a driver, which they later identified as Castillo through a photographic lineup. according to records.
Perez also mentioned that Castillo told him to run after the crash despite his injuries. Perez said he helped Nuñez leave the scene and hide behind a tree until an ambulance arrived.
According to the migrants, the group crossed into the United States illegally through the desert near Juarez, Mexico. An autopsy of the deceased body revealed that the migrant, which was later identified as Nuñez's brother-in-law, died of blunt trauma to the head.
The third member traveling inside Castillo's truck was identified as a minor. He also alleged the driver pushed him after he awoke from the crash as Castillo urged him to "get out of the area."
Based on data gathered by the U.S. State Department, Arizona is a prime transit and destination area for human smuggling due to its proximity to Mexico.
This year, in a three-month period between January and March, the U.S. brought criminal charges in Arizona against 2,113 individuals who illegally entered or re-entered the country. Out of those, 243 cases were filed against individuals responsible for smuggling undocumented noncitizens to and within the District of Arizona.
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