LAREDO, TX – A 41-year-old Guatemalan national has been extradited to the United States to face charges connected to a 2021 tractor-trailer crash that killed more than 50 people and injured over 100 others, many of them Guatemalan nationals and unaccompanied children.
According to the Department of Justice, Daniel Zavala Ramos, also known as Dany ZR, was arrested in Boquerón, Guatemala, on Aug. 7, 2025, following a U.S. extradition request. He was surrendered to U.S. authorities on Oct. 21 and is scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Diana Song Quiroga in Laredo.
Zavala Ramos is among six individuals charged in connection with the Dec. 9, 2021, crash, including Tomas Quino Canil, 37; Oswaldo Manuel Zavala Quino, 25; Josefa Quino Canil De Zavala, 43; Alberto Marcario Chitic, 32; and Jorge Agapito Ventura, 33, who was arrested in Cleveland, Texas. All six face charges of conspiracy to bring illegal aliens into the United States, placing lives in jeopardy, causing serious bodily injury, and resulting in death.
Court documents allege that from October 2021 to February 2023, the defendants participated in a large-scale human smuggling operation, recruiting migrants, collecting payments, and arranging transport through Mexico into the United States by foot, microbuses, cattle trucks, and tractor-trailers. Prosecutors said the smugglers provided migrants with scripts to use if apprehended and that some of the individuals they recruited died or were seriously injured in the 2021 crash.
If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of life in federal prison and a possible $250,000 fine.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations’ Counter Proliferation Investigations Group in Washington, D.C., with assistance from HSI offices in Guatemala, Mexico, Houston, and Laredo, as well as multiple U.S. and international partners.
The prosecution is being led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jennifer Day and Mary Lou Castillo, along with Senior Trial Attorney Danielle Hickman of the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section.
