Federal prosecutors have charged three more people in a human-smuggling case involving the deaths of seven migrants last spring in Texas.

Six migrants were found dead inside the shipping container, seen here, in May. Federal prosecutors on Monday charged 14 people in connection to the smuggling scheme. Photo courtesy Justice Department/Release UPI

Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Federal prosecutors have charged three more people and expanded charges against 11 others in a human-smuggling case involving the deaths of seven migrants last spring, six of whom were found dead in a shipping container on a train in Texas.

The superseding indictment announced Monday charges people prosecutors say are in the country illegally, three other non-U.S. citizens and four U.S. citizens for their alleged roles in a conspiracy to smuggle migrants into the United States for profit.

According to court documents, the defendants are alleged to have run a human-smuggling operation from at least April 2023 through May 12, when authorities in Del Rio arrested Mayra Alejandra Huerta and two days after the seven victims were discovered.

"By allegedly orchestrating this deadly human smuggling scheme, these defendants showed no regard for the value of human life and put people in harm's way to pad their own pockets," Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said Monday in a statement.

Prosecutors allege that the migrants or their families paid smugglers between $1,500 and $10,000 each to bring them into the United States.

The organization is accused of using multiple smugglers who worked in concert with other smuggler groups to use each other's routes, guides, stash houses and drivers.

Once the migrants were in the United States, the smugglers allegedly loaded them into shipping containers to transport them further into the U.S. interior.

In February, the defendants began arranging to smuggle at least seven migrants, including a 14-year-old Honduran, into Del Rio, Texas.

After bringing the seven migrants illegally into the United States from Mexico, the smugglers transported them to an area near the Union Pacific train tracks in Del Rio, where, at about 1:20 p.m. local time on May 9, they used red bolt cutters to allegedly cut the lock off a stationary shipping container's door, loaded the migrants inside and then closed the door.

Stacked on top of another container and without ventilation or a cooling system, the migrants were trapped inside as outside temperatures reached 92 degrees Fahrenheit.

The train carrying the shipping container arrived in San Antonio, where smugglers opened the door to find the migrants in "peril," the Justice Department said, adding that the smugglers fled the scene, leaving one migrant deceased near the railroad tracks.

The train then departed the next day for Laredo, where on May 10 a worker at the Union Pacific Rail Yard noticed a leg sticking out from a shipping container.

An inspection of the shipping container revealed the six bodies.

The victims were identified as four Mexican nationals and three Honduran nationals, including a 14-year-old child.

The three newly charged defendants are Juan Alvaro Membreno-Contreras, 40, Yuri Julissa Cuaresma Paredes, 34, and Mavis Aleyda Escalante Peraza, 38, all from Honduras.

According to prosecutors, seven of the 14 defendants are in the United States illegally.

The superseding indictment charges 12 of the defendants with offenses related to the deaths of the seven migrants, including conspiracy and aiding and abetting their transportation. If convicted, they could face life in prison.

Eleven of the defendants also face seven counts of helping bring migrants into the United States illegally. Conviction on at least three counts carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum of 15 years.

Twelve of the defendants were also charged with conspiracy to bring migrants to the country in a manner that caused serious injury and endangered lives, while 11 face charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Both offenses carry maximum sentences of 20 years in prison.