Teenage smugglers in spotlight
Boy faces adult trial after immigrants' 2008 deaths
By Leslie Berestein

2:00 a.m. September 20, 2009

A sport utility vehicle tumbled into an Imperial County irrigation canal one night last year, loaded beyond capacity with at least 20 people just smuggled into the country.

Six were killed. Authorities say the driver was a teenage boy who will go on trial this week in a case that has brought attention to the dangerous practice of human-smuggling rings hiring teens to work as foot guides and load drivers.

“There is this sense of invincibility, that nothing can happen to you,â€