A federal complaint charged Schenectady, NY, resident Tyrone Williams with transporting and harboring aliens and conspiracy to transport and harbor aliens. On May 14, 18 illegal immigrants were found dead in the back of Williams' sweltering semitrailer in Victoria, TX.

According to the complaint, Williams told authorities he was flagged down by another trucker informing him he had a problem with his trailer. He said he pulled over at a truck stop in Victoria, went to the back of the trailer and opened the door, and saw the conditions inside.

"Williams admitted that he panicked, unhooked the trailer and drove to Houston," the complaint said.

Williams' wife, Karen, told the Houston Chronicle her husband told her the trailer was hijacked and that he dropped the trailer "for his own safety and ran." Land Line also talked with Mrs. Williams, who would not comment.

Williams, a legal permanent U.S. resident from Jamaica, was picked up by police in Houston, 115 miles northeast of the Victoria truck stop. The semi-tractor is registered to Salem Truck Leasing Inc, Brooklyn, NY, the complaint says.

Williams told authorities he made a deal with two Hispanic males in Harlingen, TX, to transport the aliens to Robstown, TX. "Williams stated he was told there were 16 aliens in the back of the truck and he was to be paid $2,500 to transport the group to Robstown," the complaint said. He was also told he would receive an additional $2,500 if he continued on to Houston.

Authorities are still looking for the two who allegedly made the deal with Williams, in addition to a black female named Fatima, who Williams said was a hitchhiker.

Meanwhile, The New York Department of Motor Vehicle records show Williams got his commercial license in 1996. He calls his independent trucking business Tyrone II Transport, Newsday reported.

Williams was convicted in 2000 in upstate New York of failing to comply with a police officer or flag person, a violation. He was fined $125 and received two points on his license, according to a DMV spokesman.

The ordeal

According to press reports, police in Kingsville, about 100 miles south of the truck stop where the immigrants' journey ended, said an emergency dispatcher received a 9-1-1 call from a man speaking Spanish and broken English at 11:42 p.m. May 13.

"He was saying, `We're asphyxiating. Help me, help me. We're asphyxiating,' " said Sam Granato, chief of the Kingsville police.

Granato said the dispatcher passed the call to someone who spoke Spanish, but it was cut off, and the number couldn't be traced. After listening to a digital recording, Granato said police were able to hear the man saying that people were asphyxiating.

Granato said someone traveling on U.S. Highway 77 called police to report seeing a hand waving a bandanna out of a hole in the back of a white 18-wheeler with New York plates. Granato said it wasn't until a teletype came in from Victoria about the white 18-wheeler that dispatchers connected the calls.

The victims - men, women and children from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras - were apparently so desperate for air that they tried to claw through insulation on the back door. Authorities said they believed as many as 100 people were crammed in the trailer.

"This case involves the greatest loss of life in recent history in what appears to be an alien-smuggling case," said Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation security at the Homeland Security Department. He said the federal agency would help catch those involved.

"This grim discovery is a horrific reminder of the callous disregard smugglers have for their human cargo," Hutchinson said in Washington.

By Dick Larsen, senior editor