By Scott Calvert 

Nine people died over the weekend in San Antonio after enduring sweltering conditions inside a tractor-trailer that authorities suspect was being used to smuggle them.

Rescuers found eight men dead inside the trailer early Sunday. Another passenger, also an adult male, later died at a hospital, officials said Sunday afternoon.

"We're looking at a human-trafficking crime here," San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said at a news conference.

The driver of the big rig is in federal custody and will be charged Monday, said Richard Durbin Jr., the U.S. attorney for western Texas. James M. Bradley Jr., 60 years old, is being held in federal custody in connection with the incident, according to a statement from Mr. Durbin's office. The office didn't specify if Mr. Bradley was the driver. It wasn't immediately clear if Mr. Bradley had a lawyer.

Alton Bradley of Land O' Lakes, Fla., who said he is Mr. Bradley's nephew, said his uncle has been a long-haul trucker for decades. His uncle used to visit once or twice a year, depending on his driving schedule, and the two would discuss what he was hauling. "It was nothing out of the ordinary, regular stuff you pick up from a vendor, a manufacturer, and drop off somewhere else," Alton Bradley said. He last saw his uncle seven or eight years ago.

Brian Pyle, the owner of Pyle Transportation, a trucking company based in Schaller, Iowa, said Mr. Bradley had been his employee on and off for about five years.

Mr. Pyle said he had recently sent Mr. Bradley, who bought his own truck several months ago, down to Brownsville, Texas, to deliver an empty trailer to a business Mr. Pyle had sold the trailer to.

"He was friendly. He seemed like the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back," Mr. Pyle said.

Mr. Pyle said Mr. Bradley had originally worked for his company, which hauls meat and produce, as a driver. But he suffered from diabetes and had to quit earlier this year for several months to get his leg amputated. Mr. Pyle said Mr. Bradley returned to the company recently after getting fitted for a prosthetic leg and had since bought his own truck.

Mr. Pyle said he'd never had any issues with Mr. Bradley, and was stunned to learn what had happened. "I'm shocked -- just speechless," he said. He said he had spoken with him last Monday. This was Mr. Bradley's first trip since returning to the trucking company, Mr. Pyle said.

The male occupant who died at the hospital was among 30 individuals who were taken to area hospitals after rescuers pulled them from the trailer, parked near a Wal-Mart store, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman said.

Many were initially in serious or critical condition, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said Sunday. Paramedics reported that people had high heart rates and were hot to the touch, suffering from signs of heat stroke and dehydration, he said.

"The truck was loaded with people," he said.

A total of about 39 people were believed to be inside the truck, including at least two school-age children, when rescuers arrived, authorities said. Chief McManus said he didn't know the occupants' countries of origin.

Police responded to the 18-wheeler after a man emerged from the vehicle and approached a store worker, asking for water. Inside the trailer, police and paramedics found eight people dead, and about 28 others among them, Chief Hood said.

One passenger fled but was found Sunday morning in a nearby wooded area, prosecutors said.

Passengers are likely to be turned over to ICE for questioning after they have been treated, Chief McManus said.

Mr. Durbin, the region's top federal prosecutor, said the people in the trailer were "victims of ruthless human smugglers indifferent to the well-being of their fragile cargo.""

"These people were helpless in the hands of their transporters," he said in a statement. "Imagine their suffering, trapped in a stifling trailer in 100-plus degree heat."

The trailer wasn't air-conditioned and rescuers saw no sign occupants had access to water.

The Wal-Mart's surveillance camera shows that a number of vehicles had earlier arrived to pick up "a lot" of the people who were in the trailer and survived the trip, Chief McManus said. He said he didn't know where the truck began its journey.

"This is not an isolated incident; this happens quite frequently," the police chief said, referring to human smuggling. "It happens late at night, under darkness."

In fiscal year 2016, the Homeland Security Investigations arm of ICE launched 2,110 human-smuggling investigations, yielding 1,522 criminal convictions, federal officials say. That same year the unit made 2,734 criminal arrests and about 3,000 administrative arrests linked to smuggling.

In 2003, 19 foreign nationals died after being smuggled inside an insulated tractor trailer that was discovered abandoned at a truck stop in Victoria, Texas. Police found 17 bodies in and around the trailer, and two other occupants died at local hospitals. The driver is serving a prison sentence of nearly 34 years without possibility of parole.

In April, a 61-year-old Michigan man was sentenced to nearly six years in prison after a federal jury in Texas convicted him of trying to smuggle 10 people into the U.S. inside a locked rental truck in 2016. All 10 survived.

Earlier this month in Houston, police rescued 12 people, including a girl, from the hot cargo bay of a box truck after they had spent hours banging on the wall for help. Three people were charged with human smuggling, the local prosecutor said.

Miguel Bustillo and Jim Oberman contributed to this article.

Write to Scott Calvert at scott.calvert@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 23, 2017 23:05 ET (03:05 GMT)

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