The death toll in what police called a horrific human trafficking case -- eight men died inside a sweltering 18-wheeler parked outside a San Antonio Walmart -- reached nine on Sunday.

James Mathew Bradley Jr., 60, from Clearwater, Florida, was taken into custody, federal prosecutors said. No immediate charges were filed.

One additional man died at the hospital, according to Liz Johnson, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE had announced 10 were dead before revising the number to nine.

A total of 39 people had been inside the tractor-trailer, including at least four teenagers, Fox 29 reported. Twenty people were taken to area hospitals in critical condition, and another eight had “less critical” injuries.

"We’re looking at human trafficking crime here this evening,” Police Chief William McManus said, adding that it was "a horrific tragedy."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is also looking into the incident.

A store employee first alerted police after being approached by someone from the truck who was asking for water. The vehicle did not have a working air conditioning system when it was found, authorities said.

"They were very hot to the touch. So these people were in this trailer without any signs of any type of water," San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said in a news conference. "It was a mass casualty situation for us."

The National Weather Service said the temperature in San Antonio hit 101 degrees just before 5 p.m. Saturday and didn't dip below 90 degrees until after 10 p.m.

According to police, surveillance video from the store showed "a number of vehicles" picking up people who survived the trip that were inside the trailer. Some people fled into the woods, prompting police to search the area in the morning.

The origin of the truck is still unknown. Investigators gathered evidence from the truck on Sunday, which had an Iowa license plate but no other markings.

Thomas Homan, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director, said in a statement: "By any standard, the horrific crime uncovered last night ranks as a stark reminder of why human smuggling networks must be pursued, caught and punished."

"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations works year-round to identify, dismantle, and disrupt the transnational criminal networks that smuggle people into and throughout the United States. These networks have repeatedly shown a reckless disregard for those they smuggle, as last night's case demonstrates," Homan said in the statement.

U.S. Attorney Richard Durbin, Jr. also called Sunday morning's incident "an alien smuggling venture gone horribly wrong."

"All were victims of ruthless human smugglers indifferent to the well-being of their fragile cargo," Durbin said, adding that the Justice Department will be working with Homeland Security and local responders in the investigation.

Other cases of human trafficking in the United States have led to more deaths. In May 2003, 19 immigrants who were being transported from South Texas to Houston inside a sweltering tractor-trailer died.

Click here for more from Fox 29.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>(In this July 23rd story, corrects paras 1 and 2 to show that eight bodies were found in truck, not nine; a ninth man died later at a hospital.)

By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - At least eight men were found dead on Sunday alongside dozens of people discovered inside a sweltering tractor trailer parked at a Walmart store in San Antonio, Texas, in what authorities called a case of “ruthless” human trafficking.

Thirty people, many in critical condition and suffering from heat stoke and exhaustion, were removed from the trailer, which lacked air conditioning or a water supply, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said. Temperatures outside the vehicle topped 100 degrees F (37.8 C). A ninth man died later at a hospital.

Another person was found in a wooded area nearby and was also being treated, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas said in a statement. All the deceased were adult males, it said.

“All were victims of ruthless human smugglers indifferent to the well-being of their fragile cargo,” San Antonio-based U.S. Attorney Richard Durbin Jr. said.

“These people were helpless in the hands of their transporters. Imagine their suffering, trapped in a stifling trailer in 100-plus degree heat,” he said.

The truck’s driver, named by the U.S. Attorney’s Office as James Mathew Bradley Jr., 60, of Clearwater, Florida, was arrested in connection with the incident, the statement said.

A criminal complaint will be filed in federal court in San Antonio on Monday, and Bradley is expected to have an initial court appearance shortly afterward, the U.S. attorney said.

A multiagency investigation was under way.

The bodies of the dead, who have not yet been identified by authorities, were discovered after officials were led to the trailer by a man who had approached a Walmart employee and asked for water.

San Antonio is about 150 miles (240 km) north of the border with Mexico.

Mexico’s government said it deplored the deaths and that it had asked the authorities for an exhaustive investigation.

In a statement, it said its consul general in San Antonio was working closely with local and federal authorities, as well as the hospitals, to identify the nationalities of the victims and, if necessary, repatriate their remains to Mexico.

Police prepare to tow and 18-wheeler trailer parked behind a Walmart store after eight people believed to be illegal immigrants being smuggled into the United States were found dead inside it in San Antonio, Texas, U.S. July 23, 2017. REUTERS/Ray Whitehouse

‘HORRIBLE TRAGEDY’

Raids on suspected illegal immigrants have ramped up across the United States in recent months, after President Donald Trump’s vow to crack down on those entering the country without authorization or overstaying their visas.

In Texas alone, federal immigration agents said they arrested 123 illegal immigrants with criminal records in an eight-day operation that ended last week.

The San Antonio deaths come more than a decade after what is considered the worst immigrant smuggling case in U.S. history, when 70 people were found stuffed into an 18-wheeler. Nineteen of them died in the incident in Victoria, Texas, about 100 miles (160 km) southeast of San Antonio, in May 2003.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus described the latest fatalities as a “horrible tragedy” and said other suspects had fled the scene as police officers arrived.

“Checking the video, there were a number of vehicles that came and picked up other people who were in that trailer,” McManus said.

Twenty people were airlifted to seven hospitals in conditions ranging from “critical to very critical,” Hood said. Eight others are hospitalized in less serious condition, he said.

McManus said the people in the truck ranged from school-age juveniles to adults in their 20s and 30s.

He said the Department of Homeland Security had joined the investigation, and that the origin of the truck was unclear.

Experts have warned in recent months that tougher immigration policies could make it more difficult to stop human trafficking. Measures to harden international borders encourage would-be migrants to turn to smugglers and fear of deportation deters whistle-blowing, they said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials defended the use of tough methods to fight human smuggling.

“So long as I lead ICE, there will be an unwavering commitment to use law enforcement assets to put an end to these practices,” the agency’s acting director, Thomas Homan, said in a statement.

The Border Patrol has regularly reported finding suspected immigrants inside trucks along the U.S. border with Mexico. Earlier this month, 72 Latin Americans were found in a trailer in Laredo, it said. In June, 44 people were found in the back of tractor trailer in the same Texas city, which lies directly across the Rio Grande from Mexico.

San Antonio has a policy of not inquiring about the immigration status of people who come into contact with city officials or police.

Slideshow (4 Images)

It was among several cities in Texas that filed a federal lawsuit last month to block a state law set to take effect in September that would force them to cooperate closely with immigration agents.

“San Antonio will not turn its back on any man, woman, or child in need,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in a statement responding to the truck deaths.</s>(CNN) — At least nine people are dead after a phone call from a Walmart employee led to the discovery of dozens of undocumented immigrants severely injured in the back of a tractor-trailer in Texas early Sunday, according to federal authorities.

More than 100 undocumented immigrants may have been sandwiched in the back of the 18-wheeler during the journey, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Thomas Homan said, citing initial interviews with survivors.

“Checking the video from the store, we found there were a number of vehicles that came in and picked up a lot of the folks that were in that trailer that survived the trip,” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said. “We are looking at a human trafficking crime here.”

The employee told authorities the trailer was parked at a Walmart lot in San Antonio. A man who was in it asked the employee for water.

The employee brought water for the man, then called police and asked them to conduct a welfare check, McManus said.

That’s when authorities discovered eight bodies and 31 people suffering from various injuries, authorities said. A ninth victim later died at a hospital, ICE officials said.

“We quickly called a ‘mass casualty incident’ and had about 29 units arrive out there and start transporting people,” San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said.

“With heat strokes or heat injuries, a lot of them are going to have some irreversible brain damage.”

The air conditioner in the trailer was not working, officials said. And the high temperature in San Antonio on Saturday was 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

“Unfortunately, some of them were severely overheated, and that was a refrigerated truck with no refrigeration,” Hood said. “So the inside of the truck was just austere condition that nobody was going to survive in it. So we were very fortunate that they were found.”

Two of the people hospitalized are 15 years old, the fire spokesman said.

Authorities don’t know where the trailer is from or how long it was parked at Walmart, but they are reviewing surveillance video.

Police also searched the area with helicopters after some people ran into the woods.

The US Attorney’s Office said the driver, James Matthew Bradley Jr., 60, of Clearwater, Florida, was being held in connection with the incident, authorities said. Prosecutors plan to file a criminal complaint against Bradley in federal court on Monday morning.

“The driver and whoever else we find is involved in this will be facing state and federal charges,” McManus said.

“Fortunately, we came across this one and fortunately there are people who survived but this happens all the time,” he said. “You can see that it happens late at night under darkness because they don’t want to be discovered.”

Once the victims undergo treatment, the case will be turned over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the police chief said.

ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan deplored the discovery as the latest major case of human smuggling in the United States.

“By any standard, the horrific crime uncovered last night ranks as a stark reminder of why human smuggling networks must be pursued, caught and punished,” Homan said in a statement.

He said in fiscal year 2016, Homeland Security Investigations launched 2,110 human smuggling investigations, which resulted in 1,522 criminal convictions.

During that same year, he said, HSI made 2,734 criminal arrests and 3,007 administrative arrests related to human smuggling operations.

In Sunday’s case, “These people were helpless in the hands of their transporters,” said Richard L. Durbin Jr., US attorney for the Western District of Texas.

“All were victims of ruthless human smugglers indifferent to the well-being of their fragile cargo.”

US Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat who represents parts of San Antonio, called for reform.

“Horrific scene overnight in San Antonio where a human smuggling attempt turned deadly,” Doggett tweeted. “Prosecute smugglers, pray for survivors and the victims’ families, stop the hysteria, reform our broken immigration system.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the deaths were “a heartbreaking tragedy.”

“Human trafficking is an epidemic that Texas is working to eradicate,” the governor said, highlighting a bill he signed in May that provides information to the trucking industry about how to spot and report signs of human trafficking.

Walmart: Some of the incident was on camera

The store captured some of the incident on camera, but declined to describe or release any of the footage to CNN, Walmart corporate spokesman Nathan Barr said.

“(T)his is an ongoing law enforcement investigation. We are cooperating fully with the authorities but will not be providing interviews or footage to media,” Barr told CNN in an email.

“We are in the process of reviewing that video with law enforcement but won’t be commenting on it.”

Barr also declined to identify the employee who asked police to conduct a welfare check on the truck.

“I wish I could be more helpful but we can’t interfere with the investigation,” he said.</s>Eight people were found dead in a tractor-trailer outside a Walmart store in what police called a horrific human trafficking case, and the driver was arrested.

Thirty other people who were also in the tractor-trailer were transported to the hospital, according to authorities.

Authorities said the driver had been held, but they didn't release the driver's identity.

A person from the truck approached a Walmart employee in a parking lot and asked for water late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, San Antonio police said. The employee gave the person the water and then called police, and when officers arrived they found the eight people dead in the back of the trailer, police Chief William McManus said.

Firefighters had been called to the scene at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, CBS San Antonio affiliate KENS reports. Two AirLIFE choppers and at least 29 fire units responded to take care of the victims.

U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement agents and San Antonio police were also called to the scene.

Investigators checked store surveillance video, which showed vehicles had arrived and picked up other people from the tractor-trailer, police said.

"We're looking at a human trafficking crime this evening," McManus said.

The temperature in San Antonio had been in the 90s just before the eight were found dead. Authorities said the truck didn't have a working air conditioning system despite the blistering summer heat. The National Weather Service said the temperature in San Antonio hit 101 degrees just before 5 p.m. Saturday and didn't dip below 90 degrees until after 10 p.m.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was involved in the investigation into what happened, according to McManus.</s>Eight people have been found dead inside a sweltering tractor-trailer found parked behind a Walmart in San Antonio, says police chief William McManus. San Antonio fire chief Charles Hood says 20 other people were found in the trailer who are in extremely critical or serious condition
• Eight dead in trailer outside San Antonio Walmart ‘were very hot to touch’</s>A phone call from a Walmart employee led to the discovery of eight bodies and 30 people injured in the back of a tractor-trailer in Texas early Sunday in what police are investigating as a horrific human trafficking case, authorities said.

The employee told authorities the trailer was parked at a Walmart lot in San Antonio. A man who was in it asked the employee for water, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said.

The employee brought water for the man, then called police and asked them to conduct a welfare check, McManus said.

When police arrived at the trailer, they found eight people dead and 30 suffering from various injuries, fire department spokesman Joe Arrington said. He said 17 of those are critical condition, and 13 are in serious condition.

“We quickly called a ‘mass casualty incident’ and had about 29 units arrive out there and start transporting people,” San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said.

“With heat strokes or heat injuries, a lot of them are going to have some irreversible brain damage.”

The air conditioner in the trailer was not working, officials said. And the high temperature in San Antonio on Saturday was a sweltering 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

“Unfortunately, some of them were severely overheated, and that was a refrigerated truck with no refrigeration,” Hood said. “So the inside of the truck was just austere condition that nobody was going to survive in it. So we were very fortunate that they were found because if they would have spent another night in that environment, we would have 38 people who would not have survived.”

Authorities don’t know where the trailer is from or how long it was parked at Walmart, but they are reviewing surveillance video. Police are also searching the area with helicopters after some people ran into the woods.

The driver was arrested, but police did not provide any information on him.

“The driver and whoever else we find is involved in this will be facing state and federal charges,” McManus said.

Once the victims undergo treatment, the case will be turned over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the police chief said.

McManus said such incidents are not isolated.

“Fortunately, we came across this one and fortunately there are people who survived but this happens all the time,” he said. ” You can see that it happens late at night under darkness because they don’t want to be discovered.”</s>The driver of a tractor-trailer turned deadly transporter for undocumented migrants is due to face criminal charges in a Texas court Monday in what police are calling a human trafficking crime.

Authorities called to the San Antonio Walmart lot Sunday morning where the trailer was parked found eight bodies and 30 undocumented immigrants severely injured from overheating inside. A ninth person later died in hospital, ICE officials said. Thirty-nine people were recovered from the trailer, including one person who was found in a nearby wooded area.

“Checking the video from the store, we found there were a number of vehicles that came in and picked up a lot of the folks that were in that trailer that survived the trip,” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said.

“The driver and whoever else we find is involved in this will be facing state and federal charges,” he said.

The US Attorney’s Office said the driver, James Matthew Bradley Jr., 60, of Clearwater, Florida, was being held in connection with the incident. Prosecutors plan to file a criminal complaint against Bradley in federal court on Monday morning.

“These people were helpless in the hands of their transporters,” said Richard L. Durbin Jr., US attorney for the Western District of Texas.

“All were victims of ruthless human smugglers indifferent to the well-being of their fragile cargo.”

More than 100 undocumented immigrants may have been sandwiched in the trailer during the journey, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Thomas Homan said, citing initial interviews with survivors.

A Walmart employee alerted authorities to the tragedy after a man who was in the trailer asked for water.

The employee brought water for the man, then called police and asked them to conduct a welfare check, McManus said.

“We quickly called a ‘mass casualty incident’ and had about 29 units arrive out there and start transporting people,” San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said.

“With heat strokes or heat injuries, a lot of them are going to have some irreversible brain damage.”

A heatstroke can cause swelling of the brain and other vital organs, possibly causing permanent damage, if a person’s body temperature isn’t quickly lowered, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Officials said the air conditioner in the trailer was not working. And the high temperature in San Antonio on Saturday was 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

“Unfortunately, some of them were severely overheated, and that was a refrigerated truck with no refrigeration,” Hood said. “So the inside of the truck was just austere condition that nobody was going to survive in it. So we were very fortunate that they were found.”

Two of the people hospitalized are 15 years old, the fire spokesman said.

Authorities don’t know where the trailer is from or how long it was parked at Walmart, but they are reviewing surveillance video.

Police also searched the area with helicopters after some people ran into the woods.

McManus said it was fortunate that the trailer was discovered and that there were survivors but that such incidents happened all the time.

“You can see that it happens late at night under darkness because they don’t want to be discovered,” he said.

Once the victims undergo treatment, the case will be turned over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the police chief said.

Homan deplored the discovery as the latest major case of human smuggling in the United States.

“By any standard, the horrific crime uncovered last night ranks as a stark reminder of why human smuggling networks must be pursued, caught and punished,” Homan said in a statement.

He said in fiscal year 2016, Homeland Security Investigations launched 2,110 human smuggling investigations, which resulted in 1,522 criminal convictions.

During that same year, he said, HSI made 2,734 criminal arrests and 3,007 administrative arrests related to human smuggling operations.

US Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat who represents parts of San Antonio, called for reform.

“Horrific scene overnight in San Antonio where a human smuggling attempt turned deadly,” Doggett tweeted. “Prosecute smugglers, pray for survivors and the victims’ families, stop the hysteria, reform our broken immigration system.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the deaths were “a heartbreaking tragedy.”

“Human trafficking is an epidemic that Texas is working to eradicate,” the governor said, highlighting a bill he signed in May that provides information to the trucking industry about how to spot and report signs of human trafficking.</s>Eight people were found dead Sunday morning inside an 18-wheeler parked outside of a San Antonio Walmart in what police called a horrific human trafficking case.

A total of 38 people had been inside the tractor-trailer, including two school-age children, authorities said. Twenty people were taken to area hospitals in critical condition, and another eight had “less critical” injuries.

“We’re looking at human trafficking crime here this evening,” Police Chief William McManus said, adding that it was “a horrific tragedy.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is also looking into the incident. The driver of the vehicle, who was not identified, has been taken into custody, according to Fox 29.</s>Eight found dead inside truck parked at Texas Walmart in 'human trafficking crime'

Eight people have been found dead in the back of a trailer-truck parked outside a Walmart store in Texas, in what police are calling a "horrific" human trafficking case.

Several other people, possibly dozens, were found in the truck, which did not have a working air conditioning system despite blistering temperatures.

Many were found in a critical or serious condition and have been taken to hospital in San Antonio.

The driver of the truck is in police custody.

Police said a person from the truck approached a Walmart employee in the parking lot and asked for water late on Saturday night or early Sunday morning (local time).

The employee gave the person the water and then called police.

When officers arrived they found the eight people dead, police chief William McManus said.

Investigators checked store surveillance video, which showed vehicles had arrived and picked up other people from the tractor-trailer, he said.

"We're looking at a human trafficking crime this evening," Mr McManus said.

The US immigration department is trying to establish the immigration status of the victims.

Police are searching the area to find anyone who may have attempted to flee the scene.

Other cases of human trafficking in the United States have led to more deaths.

In May 2003, 19 immigrants being transported from South Texas to Houston died inside a sweltering tractor-trailer.

Prosecutors said the driver in the 2003 case heard the immigrants begging and screaming for their lives as they were succumbing to the stifling heat inside his truck but refused to free them.

The driver was resentenced in 2011 to nearly 34 years in prison after a federal appeals court overturned the multiple life sentences he had received.</s>Eight people believed to be illegal immigrants being smuggled into the United States were found dead inside a sweltering 18-wheeler trailer parked behind a Walmart store in San Antonio, Texas, early on Sunday, authorities said.

Another 30 people, many suffering from heat stoke and exhaustion, were with the bodies in the trailer, which lacked air conditioning or a water supply, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said.

The truck’s driver was arrested and will be charged, said Richard Durbin, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, and prosecutors will work to identify others responsible.

“These people were helpless in the hands of their transporters,” Durbin said in a statement, adding the heat in southern Texas is “punishing” at this time of year.

WATCH: U.S. says 20M victims of human trafficking are suffering around the globe

“Imagine their suffering, trapped in a stifling trailer in 100-plus degree heat,” he said. They were victims of “ruthless human smugglers indifferent to the well-being of their fragile cargo,” he added.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus described it as a “horrible tragedy,” and said other suspects had fled the scene as police officers arrived.

“Checking the video, there were a number of vehicles that came and picked up other people who were in that trailer,” McManus said.

Twenty people were airlifted to seven hospitals and their conditions were “critical to very critical,” fire chief Hood said. Eight others are hospitalized in less serious condition, he said.

The people range from school-age juveniles to adults in their twenties and thirties, he said.

READ MORE: Man wanted in human trafficking investigation, more victims possible: Peel police

McManus said officials were led to the scene by a man who approached a store employee asking for water.

McManus said the Department of Homeland Security had joined the investigation. The origin of the truck is unclear, he added.
Nine men are found dead inside a tractor-trailer parked outside a Walmart store in the American city of San Antonio, Texas, in what authorities call a case of "ruthless" human trafficking. Thirty people, many in critical condition and suffering from heat stroke and exhaustion, were removed from the non-air conditioned trailer which also lacked a water supply.