A 33-year-old Mission man is being held in the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center on more than $2 million in bonds after leading Texas Department of Public Safety troopers on a chase that resulted in the death of two people.
DPS troopers arrested Mario Oscar Corona Maldonado on Friday following the fatal crash that occurred at about 8:03 a.m. on Jara Chinas Road north of Farm-to-Market Road 2221, which is north of La Joya.
Corona was charged with 12 counts of smuggling of persons causing serious bodily injury or death, a single count of evading arrest with a vehicle causing death and another count of evading arrest.
He received a total of $2,110,000 in bonds on the charges and the affidavit for his arrest indicates Homeland Security Investigations has a federal detainer and that federal charges are pending.
A search of federal court records on Monday morning didn’t return any results.
Prior to the crash, a trooper overheard DPS communications about a black or green pick-up truck that had possibly picked up 20 people entering the country illegally.
The trooper spotted the vehicle and attempted to pull the black F-150 over for failing to signal the required distance before turning, and a chase ensued.
“The vehicle traveled northbound onto a dirt road where the driver later lost control of his vehicle and had a roll-over crash,” the affidavit said.
Two men who were in the bed of the truck died in the crash.
In a news release, DPS said the driver and nine other people were taken to hospitals with minor to major injuries.
Maldonado was booked into the county jail on Saturday after being released from the hospital.
That news release also says Maldonado was driving at an unsafe speed before losing control.
(Courtesy Photo)
