Four more men have been arrested in Texas in connection with a human smuggling operation that left 53 people dead on the outskirts of San Antonio last year, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday. The arrests on Monday, which came one day shy of the first anniversary of the discovery of the dead migrants, marked a significant development in the federal investigation into one of the deadliest episodes involving migrants along the southern border of the United States in recent history. The arrests of the men brings to six the number of people facing criminal charges in the case. The four men arrested this week are Riley Covarrubias-Ponce, 30, Felipe Orduna-Torres, 28, Luis Alberto Rivera-Leal, 37, and Armando Gonzales-Ortega, 53, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Texas. They were part of a human smuggling organization that brought people into the United States from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico from December 2021 to June 2022, the federal prosecutor’s office in San Antonio said.

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Persons: Riley Covarrubias, Felipe Orduna, Torres, Luis Alberto Rivera, Leal, Armando Gonzales, Ortega Organizations: San Antonio, Attorney’s, Western, Western District of Locations: Texas, San, United States, Ponce, Western District, Western District of Texas, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, San Antonio