(The following article was posted on the Houston Chronicle’s website on August 4.)
HOUSTON — A South Texas railroad conductor has pleaded guilty to aiding smugglers responsible for the death of 11 immigrants in 2002.
Arnulfo Flores Jr., 33, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for conspiring with human smugglers. He pleaded guilty in McAllen.
Flores sold train schedules to smugglers who used the information to load illegal immigrants onto rail cars in Harlingen and then unload them about 100 miles north in Kingsville, federal prosecutors said. Eleven immigrants loaded in May 2002 were trapped and died in a railroad car. Their bodies were found four months later in Iowa.
The alleged smuggling ringleader, Juan Fernando Licea-Cedillo, is scheduled to be arraigned in Houston Aug. 8. Two other alleged smugglers remain at large.