Judge sentences defendant in US deadliest smuggling attempt to 14 years in prison

Defendant sentenced to 14 years in Texas smuggling

HOUSTON — A federal judge has sentenced the last of more than a dozen people indicted for their roles in the deadliest human smuggling attempt in U.S. history to 14 years in prison.

Octavio Torres-Ortega admitted his guilt and apologized for the smuggling attempt at a hearing in Houston federal court on Monday.

Prosecutors said he was part of a smuggling ring that packed more than 70 illegal immigrants into the back of a stifling tractor-trailer in May 2003 and tried to transport them from southern Texas to Houston.

The immigrants were found after the driver abandoned the trailer at a truck stop in Victoria, about 100 miles southwest of Houston.

Seventeen people were found dead in the trailer and two others died later of dehydration, overheating and suffocation.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

HOUSTON (AP) — A Mexican man faces sentencing in Houston in an illegal immigrant smuggling attempt that left 19 people dead.

Octavio Torres-Ortega of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, is scheduled to be sentenced Monday.

Torres-Ortega pleaded guilty in 2008 to conspiring to harbor and transport aliens illegally in the United States resulting in death and serious bodily injury. Prosecutors say the victims were abandoned in a sweltering tractor-trailer near Victoria in May 2003.

Torres-Ortega is the last of 14 defendants to be sentenced in the case, the deadliest human smuggling attempt in U.S. history. He could get life in prison.