EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Two suspected smugglers are facing felony charges in connection with the death of a woman they allegedly abandoned in the desert before she was struck and killed by a train.

The incident took place Monday near the La Union, New Mexico, railroad crossing, a known pass-through area for unauthorized non-citizens who manage to evade capture in the desert north of the U.S. Border Patrol Santa Teresa Station.

Documents filed in federal court show a train conductor alerted New Mexico State Police to the fatality; the officers, in turn, notified the Border Patrol evidence collection team and the Doña Ana County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Border agents searched the area and apprehended 11 unauthorized migrants they believed may have been traveling with the woman. Four of the migrants singled out two traveling companions they identified as “foot guides,” a euphemism for smugglers tasked with helping unauthorized foreign migrants evade arrest.

Homeland Security Investigations agents conducted separate interviews with Marco Olvera Aguilar and Jose Soto Perez. Soto allegedly admitted to leading a group of 15 unauthorized migrants into the desert past Border Patrol agents and towards La Union.

A criminal complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico alleges Soto told agents the woman was among a small group that “got left behind near the railroad tracks.” The alleged smuggler told agents that Olvera was the one who kept in communication with a human smuggling organization based in Mexico during the jog to La Union.

Court records show Olvera also admitted his role as a “foot guide” for the human smuggling organization and that he used “light towers” to help guide the group in the desert. The Border Patrol uses several technologies to monitor the border, including mounted solar-powered cameras and mounted lights in remote locations.  

Olvera, too, allegedly admitted to agents that some migrants, including the woman who would later die, were left behind when they could not keep up.

The complaint accuses Soto and Olvera of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens resulting in death. It is a felony punishable by up to life in prison. A Border Report records search shows sentences vary according to circumstance and the number of fatalities.

Last September, a Temple, Texas, man was sentenced to 136 months in prison for the death of two migrants during a rollover while the driver of a pickup was trying to evade authorities.

But in 2021, a South Texas man was sentenced to 30 years in prison following a June 2018 vehicle crash that killed five migrants and seriously injured eight more.

Records show Soto and Olvera made their initial appearance Wednesday in U.S. federal court in Las Cruces, New Mexico.