A teen and five others from Honduras and Mexico were among six people found dead in a shipping container at a Union Pacific rail yard in Laredo, Texas, police said May 14, as investigators pursued how the container was used to transport migrants toward the U.S.-Mexico border. Laredo Mayor Victor Treviño said the victims did not die in the city, but were discovered there after what he described as hours of suffering, and he demanded justice for the lives lost.
Police said the container discovery followed a human smuggling effort staged through a freight train. Laredo Police Chief Miguel Rodriguez Jr. said the group was placed inside the shipping container on Saturday in Del Rio, Texas, about two days after the train departed from Long Beach, California, and that the train traveled to the San Antonio area from Del Rio before arriving Sunday in Laredo.
Rodriguez said authorities initially did not know the situation involved human smuggling. He also declined to release further details about the route, saying police were turning to federal authorities to lead the investigation. Police said the bodies were discovered by a Union Pacific employee.
The Webb County medical examiner suspects the deaths were caused by hyperthermia, or heat stroke, authorities said, and Treviño repeated that assessment at the news conference. Rodriguez told reporters they later learned that at least one teen was among the dead.
Laredo officials also raised questions about whether they found everyone who was inside the container. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said he believes a seventh person in the group died, citing the discovery of the body of a 49-year-old Mexican man found Monday in the San Antonio area, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Laredo.
Salazar said the man’s death may have occurred during the journey and offered two possibilities: that he was thrown from the train after being found deceased or that he fell from the train and died as a result. He also disclosed that San Antonio police took a call Saturday from a relative of someone in the shipping container who had been informed about the “oppressive conditions,” and that officers were dispatched but did not locate the container.
In describing the extreme conditions, Salazar said his estimate for inside temperatures ranged from 120 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit (about 49 to 66 degrees Celsius), adding that the heat level could top 48 degrees Celsius. Authorities said the deaths reflect a pattern of concern tied to smuggling operations that use rail because trains often slow or stop in Mexico before crossing the border, creating opportunities for people—or contraband—to be loaded or hidden before entry into the United States.
The case also echoes a prior federal case in Texas in which two smugglers were sentenced to life in prison for what the Justice Department described as the deadliest human smuggling attempt across the U.S.-Mexico border at the time. In that 2022 incident, prosecutors said 53 migrants were found dead in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer.
Separately, the U.S. Border Patrol’s statistics show Laredo as a major crossing area: about 40 people were encountered daily in March crossing illegally by Border Patrol agents in Laredo, making it the third busiest sector among nine along the border with Mexico, according to the agency’s statistics.
In Laredo, officials emphasized that the location is a frequent node for illegal movement of people. As investigators work with federal authorities on the container’s handling and the train’s route, the deaths have put renewed focus on the risks of freight-rail smuggling—where delays and confined spaces can turn a journey into a fatal trap.