SALT LAKE CITY - Organized Smuggling Operation 8 KILLED

8 Illegal Immigrants Killed in Utah Crash
By MARTIN STOLZ
SALT LAKE CITY, April 16 — Eight men were killed Monday after a sport utility vehicle carrying a driver and at least 14 other illegal immigrants rolled over on a remote desert highway in southeastern Utah, the authorities said.

“This has all the earmarks of an organized smuggling operation,” said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. “For smugglers, these aren’t human beings; they’re human cargo.”

The driver of the vehicle, an eight-passenger Chevrolet Suburban, apparently swerved about 3:30 a.m. and lost control, said Trooper Preston Raban, a Utah Highway Patrol spokesman in Salt Lake City.

The truck rolled several times on a straight and flat stretch of Utah State Route 191, about 11 miles north of the Arizona border near Bluff, Utah, Trooper Raban said. All the passengers were ejected from the vehicle.

Ms. Kice said the occupants, who were all men, were illegal immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala.

Lt. Todd Peterson of the patrol’s southeastern Utah division arrived at the scene shortly after the accident. “There wasn’t a mirror or piece of glass left in the vehicle,” Lieutenant Peterson said.

The driver, the only occupant wearing a seat belt, ran away, the authorities said. San Juan County sheriff’s deputies followed his footprints through the desert for nearly eight miles and found him hiding in the brush, Lieutenant Peterson said.

The driver was identified as Rigoberto Salis-López, 30, of Guatemala. Mr. Salis-López was taken into custody by immigration authorities.

Six of the passengers died at the scene, Lieutenant Peterson said, and two more died later at hospitals in Arizona and Colorado. One passenger remained hospitalized in critical condition.

Trooper Raban said identifying the dead and notifying relatives in Latin America had been complicated because none of the passengers had identification, nor did they appear to be related or even to know one another. Mexican consular officials have been assisting, he said.

Excessive speed did not appear to have contributed to the crash, Lieutenant Peterson said. Investigators suspect that the driver may have fallen asleep or turned sharply to avoid a coyote or a large farm animal.

The driver could be charged with fleeing the scene of a crime under Utah laws, but any criminal case would be handled through the federal courts by immigration officials.

New federal sentencing guidelines allow for “very, very severe penalties” in smuggling cases that result in death, Ms. Kice said.

The agency and local law enforcement officials in Utah and elsewhere have seen an increase in smuggling cases, often involving similarly overloaded vehicles that have compromised handling and safety, Ms. Kice said.

More smugglers are also traveling at night to avoid detection, adding to risk of drivers’ falling asleep, she said.

The Suburban, which had not been reported as stolen, was legally registered to a man in Mesa, Ariz., Trooper Raban said.

Ms. Kice said the agency hoped to “take the case farther up into the organization” of the smuggling operation.

In the nation’s worst human smuggling disaster, 19 passengers were found dead of suffocation, heat and thirst in a sealed tractor trailer on May 14, 2003, in Victoria, Tex.