CNN reported that Mexican army troops detained 226 undocumented Central American migrants crammed into a hidden compartment on a truck in Veracruz, Mexico, on Monday.
The migrants were hidden -- some lying down -- in a secret compartment underneath the truck's cargo area.
The Veracruz incident is the latest in a world-wide series of incidents involving desperate illegal immigrants riding – and sometimes dying – in trucks.
In Houston, Texas, a jury was picked this week in the trial of Tyrone Williams, 34, a Jamaican immigrant from Schenectady, N.Y., accused of ignoring the conditions inside a trailer he was pulling that caused the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants in May 2003.
Last month, a Dutch truck driver was sentenced to 10 and a half years in jail for his role in a human smuggling operation that left 58 Chinese illegal immigrants suffocated in a sealed truck.
According to the Associated Press, the truck stopped this week in Veracruz was carrying no other cargo when stopped at a roadside checkpoint. Soldiers quickly detected the hidden compartment.
The migrants, including 59 women, were in urgent need of food and water, but appeared to have had adequate ventilation aboard the truck. Most of the migrants -- 131 -- identified themselves as Guatemalans, 84 said they were Salvadoran, nine were from Honduras and two from Cuba.
The truck driver and his assistant were detained on suspicion of migrant trafficking, while the migrants were detained to prepare them for deportation.
The migrants were hidden -- some lying down -- in a secret compartment underneath the truck's cargo area.
The Veracruz incident is the latest in a world-wide series of incidents involving desperate illegal immigrants riding – and sometimes dying – in trucks.
In Houston, Texas, a jury was picked this week in the trial of Tyrone Williams, 34, a Jamaican immigrant from Schenectady, N.Y., accused of ignoring the conditions inside a trailer he was pulling that caused the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants in May 2003.
Last month, a Dutch truck driver was sentenced to 10 and a half years in jail for his role in a human smuggling operation that left 58 Chinese illegal immigrants suffocated in a sealed truck.
According to the Associated Press, the truck stopped this week in Veracruz was carrying no other cargo when stopped at a roadside checkpoint. Soldiers quickly detected the hidden compartment.
The migrants, including 59 women, were in urgent need of food and water, but appeared to have had adequate ventilation aboard the truck. Most of the migrants -- 131 -- identified themselves as Guatemalans, 84 said they were Salvadoran, nine were from Honduras and two from Cuba.
The truck driver and his assistant were detained on suspicion of migrant trafficking, while the migrants were detained to prepare them for deportation.
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