By KCCI |
Posted: Sun 3:20 PM, Jul 23, 2017 |
Updated: Sun 4:17 PM, Jul 23, 2017
DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) -- A tractor-trailer found in a Texas Walmart parking lot with 9 dead immigrants and 20 others in dire condition apparently had an Iowa license plate.
Officials called the situation an immigrant-smuggling attempt gone wrong – the latest smuggling-by-truck-operation to end in tragedy and one of the worst cases on record.
In addition to 9 people dead, 30 others were crammed into the rig as midsummer Texas temperatures flared to over 100 degrees Saturday in San Antonio and didn’t dip below 90 degrees until after 10 p.m.; moreover, the air conditioning system did not work, officials said.
Police have not confirmed the victims’ country of origin, destination or exact ages, but San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said “we’re looking at a human-trafficking crime” and that many of the victims were in their 20s or 30s, in addition to two school-age children.
The discovery came after a Walmart employee gave the driver, identified as 60-year-old James Bradley Jr., who is believed to be from Florida, some water. The worker then called police, who found the dead and desperate inside the broiling rig.
Bradley was taken to federal jail in San Antonio on human trafficking charges for his alleged role in what U.S. Attorney Richard Durbin called "an alien smuggling venture gone horribly wrong."
As a helicopter hovered over the area Sunday morning, investigators were still sifting the scene for evidence. They found the tractor-trailer had an Iowa license plate and that it was registered to Pyle Transportation Inc. of Schaller, Iowa.
Owner Brian Pyle told The Washington Post that the Louisville, Kentucky-based driver owned the truck and was on his first trip. He managed his own deliveries and operated largely independently from the company.
“This was his very first trip,” Pyle told the Post. “It’s a common thing in the trucking industry … . He had my name on the side, and I pay for his insurance. He makes his own decisions, buys his own fuel.”
Fifteen years ago in Denison, authorities discovered 11 decomposed bodies in a grain hopper car. The appeared to have been illegal immigrants being pirated into the country, officials said at the time.
Posted: Sun 3:20 PM, Jul 23, 2017 |
Updated: Sun 4:17 PM, Jul 23, 2017
DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) -- A tractor-trailer found in a Texas Walmart parking lot with 9 dead immigrants and 20 others in dire condition apparently had an Iowa license plate.
Officials called the situation an immigrant-smuggling attempt gone wrong – the latest smuggling-by-truck-operation to end in tragedy and one of the worst cases on record.
In addition to 9 people dead, 30 others were crammed into the rig as midsummer Texas temperatures flared to over 100 degrees Saturday in San Antonio and didn’t dip below 90 degrees until after 10 p.m.; moreover, the air conditioning system did not work, officials said.
Police have not confirmed the victims’ country of origin, destination or exact ages, but San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said “we’re looking at a human-trafficking crime” and that many of the victims were in their 20s or 30s, in addition to two school-age children.
The discovery came after a Walmart employee gave the driver, identified as 60-year-old James Bradley Jr., who is believed to be from Florida, some water. The worker then called police, who found the dead and desperate inside the broiling rig.
Bradley was taken to federal jail in San Antonio on human trafficking charges for his alleged role in what U.S. Attorney Richard Durbin called "an alien smuggling venture gone horribly wrong."
As a helicopter hovered over the area Sunday morning, investigators were still sifting the scene for evidence. They found the tractor-trailer had an Iowa license plate and that it was registered to Pyle Transportation Inc. of Schaller, Iowa.
Owner Brian Pyle told The Washington Post that the Louisville, Kentucky-based driver owned the truck and was on his first trip. He managed his own deliveries and operated largely independently from the company.
“This was his very first trip,” Pyle told the Post. “It’s a common thing in the trucking industry … . He had my name on the side, and I pay for his insurance. He makes his own decisions, buys his own fuel.”
Fifteen years ago in Denison, authorities discovered 11 decomposed bodies in a grain hopper car. The appeared to have been illegal immigrants being pirated into the country, officials said at the time.
