- The driver of the truck carrying suspected migrants into Texas was high on meth, per reports.
- CBP officials and Rep. Henry Cuellar confirmed the driver's state with multiple media outlets.
- Prosecutors allege the driver also tried to hide in the brush to evade detection by law enforcement.
The driver involved in a tragic migrant smuggling incident in Texas that led to 53 people's deaths was high on meth, said a lawmaker.
Reuters spoke to Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, who said the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) briefed him about the incident. Cuellar said the driver of the truck in which the bodies were found, Texas native Homero Zamorano Jr., had methamphetamines in his system when arrested.
Reuters and The Washington Post confirmed with a CPB official, who spoke anonymously to the outlets, that the driver had been high on meth.
Per Cuellar, the 18-wheeler truck that Zamorano was driving was not checked because border patrol agents were occupied at the southern border.
"The truck was waved through because the traffic was backing up," Cuellar told The Post.
"There's an issue with manpower and they don't have the right or same technology at checkpoints that they do at ports of entry," Cuellar said, per The Post. He added that criminal organizations engaged in smuggling have learned to "clone" or disguise trucks to look like FedEx, UPS, and Border Patrol vehicles. "
According to the United State Attorney's Office in the western district of Texas, Zamorano tried to hide in the brush to avoid being detected by law enforcement officers.
"At the scene, San Antonio Police Department officers discovered multiple individuals some still inside the tractor trailer, some on the ground and in nearby brush, many of them deceased and some of them incapacitated," read the office's June 29 statement.
"SAPD officers were led to the location of an individual, later identified as Zamorano, who was observed hiding in the brush after attempting to abscond," the statement added.
The attorney's office said four men — Zamorano, Christian Martinez, Juan Claudio D'Luna-Mende, and Juan Francisco D'Luna-Bilbao — have been charged over their involvement in the incident. Zamorano, for one, was charged with one count of smuggling resulting in death and faces up to life imprisonment or the death penalty if convicted.
The bodies of at least 40 men and 13 women, believed to be migrants secretly crossing into the US from Mexico, were found in an abandoned semi-truck in San Antonio on Monday. Another 16 people aboard the truck were found to be suffering from heat exhaustion and hospitalized.