The driver of the truck hauling the trailer in which 51 migrants were found dead in horrendous conditions was “very high” on meth, says police.
The victims were discovered abandoned on a dirt track on the outskirts of San Antonio on Monday where temperatures reached nearly 40C.
Investigating cops say the driver of the vehicle - Homero Zamorano - was high on drugs when he was arrested.
San Antonio Express News reported an officer saying: “He was very high on meth when he was arrested nearby and had to be taken to the hospital.”
Zamorano, 45, could appear in federal court as early as Wednesday on charges of human smuggling.
Two more men, Juan Francisco D’Luna-Bilbao and Juan Claudio D’Luna-Mendez, have also been arrested in connection with the incident.
Craig Larrabee, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in San Antonio, said: “The (human smuggling) organisations are getting more violent — they don’t care about the people.
“They don’t think of them as people. They think of them as commodities.”
It was earlier reported the dead were covered with steak seasoning in an attempt to hide their smell.
Smugglers were transporting the people, believed to be migrants across the Mexico-US border and it has been claimed some of them tried to escape the vehicle as a body was found on the street.
Twelve people were hospitalised after being found among the “stacks of bodies” in the trailer, which had no air conditioning, nor water on board.
The incident is one of the deadliest human trafficking incidents in recent history.
The truck was discovered by a person who worked at a nearby building just before 6pm on Monday, police chief William McManus said.
Among the dead were two sisters looking for a new life in the USA.
Carla and Griselda Carac-Tambriz, from Guatemala, are believed to have died from heat exhaustion and dehydration.
One of the sisters is believed to have said before making the perilous journey: “Let's achieve our dreams and also help our family.”
San Antonio Fire Department chief Charles Hood had previously said his crew found "stacks of bodies" inside the trailer.
He added: “We’re not supposed to open up a truck and see stacks of bodies in there.”
US President Joe Biden issued a statement promising to “do everything possible to stop” smugglers.
He said: “This incident underscores the need to go after the multibillion-dollar criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants and leading to far too many innocent deaths.”
The mayor of San Antonio, Ron Nirenberg said that 46 of those who had died had “families who were likely trying to find a better life. This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy.”
The deaths are a part of a tragic pattern that last year saw 650 people die as they tried to cross the Mexico-US border, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
The community was the same still mourning the Uvalde shooting, the heart-breaking attack on a primary school that saw nineteen children and two adults killed.
