The Diamond Freight Death Machine
How a network of trucking companies keeps reincarnating under new names while bodies pile up on our highways
As we discussed yesterday, when Alexis Osmani Gonzalez-Companioni fell asleep behind the wheel of his Hope Trans LLC truck on June 28, 2025, and plowed into stopped traffic on I-20 near Terrell, Texas, killing five innocent people, it wasn't just another tragic trucking accident.
It was one of the latest carnages in a sophisticated shell game that's been playing out on America's highways for years, one that federal regulators either can't or won't stop.
The 27-year-old driver, a former Cuban Communist Party youth leader who entered the U.S. illegally on a tourist visa and never left, was operating a vehicle for a company that shouldn't have existed. Hope Trans LLC was just the latest incarnation in a network of "chameleon carriers,” trucking companies that shut down after fatal crashes only to immediately reappear under new names with the same trucks, same owners, and same deadly practices.
Hope Trans Is Not The Original Or the Last Chameleon Carrier
Diamond Freight Systems wasn't some fly-by-night operation. Founded in January 1991 and operating under USDOT 544370, the Yakima-based company had been hauling freight for over two decades when the bodies started piling up.
Here's the timeline of carnage that federal regulators watched happen in real time:
February 2014: A Diamond Freight driver crossed the centerline and struck an oncoming Honda, seriously injuring the occupants. No federal action taken.
March 5, 2015: Kenneth Hahn, 54, fell asleep at the wheel of his Diamond Freight box truck on Highway 97 near Orondo. The truck crossed the centerline, killed Carmela Cuellar-Morales, 22, injured her 12-year-old passenger, and plowed into an Orondo school bus carrying 43 children. All 43 students were taken to hospitals for evaluation. Hahn had been cited for crossing the centerline in an injury collision in the same area just over a year earlier.
July 6, 2017: Two Diamond Freight truck drivers died in a head-on collision on Highway 153 when one driver crossed the centerline and struck the other truck. Both drivers worked for Diamond Freight Systems.
Three crashes, at least three dead, dozens injured. All involved the same company whose drivers had a pattern of crossing centerlines and falling asleep behind the wheel.
FMCSA's response? Nothing meaningful until after the body count reached critical mass.
The Northwest Freight Reincarnation
Here's where the shell game gets interesting.
On July 31, 2015, conveniently timed just months after the fatal school bus crash, a new company appeared in Washington State records: Northwest Freight and Parcel, LLC.
The new company shared Diamond Freight's address: 645 Keys Road, Yakima.
It shared Diamond Freight's phone number: 509-453-3137.
Most telling, it shared Diamond Freight's ownership. Tony Mountaintes, identified as an owner of Northwest Freight, had been a supervisor at Diamond Freight. The same supervisor allegedly told drivers complaining about the lack of rest breaks to quit if they didn't like the conditions.
Northwest Freight had a different USDOT number: 2823911. In the safer system, it made it a completely different company with a clean safety record.
The Yakima Herald-Republic, reporting on the 2017 double fatality, noted that "The Washington State Patrol confirmed that both drivers worked for Diamond Freight Systems, which also goes by NW Freight Inc., based at the same Yakima address."
Same operation, different name, clean safety record.
Federal records tell the story of reg complicity.
Diamond Freight's SAFER report mysteriously shows no fatal crashes in the 24 months before the 2017 investigation, despite the July 6, 2017, double fatality that killed both drivers.
Northwest Freight's SAFER report shows one fatal crash in the same period.
If both drivers in the July 2017 crash worked for "Diamond Freight Systems, which also goes by NW Freight Inc..," how did one company's fatal crash disappear from federal records while another company's records showed the same crash?
FMCSA allows companies to play musical chairs with corporate names while keeping the same operations, same management, and same deadly practices.
The Wage Theft Connection
The safety violations were just the beginning of Diamond Freight's criminal enterprise.
In 2016, former driver Jason Tschosik filed a class-action lawsuit against Diamond Freight Systems and Northwest Freight and Parcel, alleging systematic wage theft affecting dozens of drivers.
Amy Thomas, terminal manager for Diamond Freight, said she worked 90-120 hours per week but was only paid for 40 hours at $11 per hour. Drivers reported being paid a flat $110 per day regardless of hours worked, with no overtime pay despite federal requirements.
Court documents show supervisors, including Tony Mountaintes, encouraged drivers to falsify timesheets and work without required rest breaks. When drivers complained about the illegal practices, Mountaintes allegedly told them to quit if they didn't like it.
The lawsuit named multiple defendants: Diamond Freight Systems, Inc., Northwest Freight and Parcel LLC, Parminder Thind, Rajiv Sauson, and Tony Mountaintes. Multiple companies, same address, same phone number, same owners, same illegal practices. The case settled in 2019, with the companies paying undisclosed amounts to affected drivers while admitting no wrongdoing.
The Pattern of Destruction
Former drivers painted a picture of an operation designed to exploit desperate workers and cut safety corners.
"It's no wonder that somebody got killed," Tschosik told investigators. He worked for Diamond Freight for six weeks in 2016 and saw how the company operated: "They hired anyone who could pass a drug test and was desperate for a job and a stable income, then didn't pay them for their work."
The fatal 2015 crash came as no surprise to him. "I saw how they hired anyone who could pass a drug test and was desperate for a job and a stable income, then didn't pay them for their work."
Drivers worked excessive hours without proper rest, operated vehicles while fatigued, and were discouraged from taking required breaks. The company's business model depended on forcing drivers to violate federal safety regulations.
When Carmela Cuellar-Morales died in 2015, her family sued Diamond Freight, accusing the company of knowing that employees worked long, irregular hours and operated vehicles while fatigued.
The lawsuit was still pending when the 2017 double fatality occurred, another indication that federal regulators were aware of the company's dangerous practices but took no meaningful action.
The Ownership Web
Unraveling the ownership structure reveals the sophistication of this chameleon operation.
Diamond Freight Systems, Inc.
USDOT: 544370
Washington State filing: January 1991
Address: 645 Keys Road, Yakima
Phone: 509-453-3137
Northwest Freight and Parcel, LLC
USDOT: 2823911
Washington State filing: July 31, 2015
Address: 645 Keys Road, Yakima
Phone: 509-453-3137
The timing of Northwest Freight's creation, months after the fatal school bus crash, suggests it was designed to compartmentalize liability and provide a clean safety record for continued operations.
Court records from the wage theft lawsuit identify the key players:
Tony Mountaintes: Owner/supervisor at both companies
Parminder Thind: Named defendant in both operations
Rajiv Sauson: Connected to the network
The Victims
The human cost of this shell game is measured in destroyed lives:
Carmela Cuellar-Morales, 22, was killed March 5, 2015, when Kenneth Hahn's Diamond Freight truck crossed the centerline. Her 12-year-old passenger was injured but survived. Forty-three schoolchildren were traumatized in the subsequent bus crash.
Two truck drivers were killed on July 6, 2017, in a head-on collision on Highway 153 when one Diamond Freight driver crossed the centerline and struck another Diamond Freight truck.
These weren't "accidents." They were the predictable result of a business model that prioritized profits over safety and exploited federal regulatory gaps to avoid accountability.
The Coverup
The most disturbing aspect of this investigation is what federal authorities won't discuss.
FMCSA won't explain how fatal crashes disappear from one company's safety record while appearing on another's when both companies operate from the same address with the same owners. They won't explain why they allowed Diamond Freight to continue operating after multiple crashes involving drivers crossing centerlines and falling asleep.
They won't explain why Northwest Freight was allowed to operate with a clean safety record despite clear connections to Diamond Freight's deadly history. When pressed about chameleon carriers, FMCSA officials issue boilerplate statements about "ongoing efforts to identify and shut down reincarnated carriers" without explaining why they've been ineffective for decades.
The Real Solution
Fixing the chameleon carrier problem requires federal agencies to do their jobs.
First, FMCSA must implement ownership-based safety tracking. When the same people open new companies after fatal crashes, those new companies should inherit the safety history of their predecessors. The technology exists, but federal agencies just refuse to use it.
Second, prosecutors must treat chameleon networks as criminal enterprises. Using multiple corporate shells to avoid safety oversight while operating dangerous vehicles should be prosecuted under RICO statutes.
Third, federal courts must pierce corporate veils in civil litigation. When companies use shell games to avoid liability for wrongful death, judges should hold the real owners personally accountable.
Fourth, Congress must close the regulatory gaps that allow these operations to flourish. Current law treats each USDOT number as a separate entity, even when the same people operate multiple companies from the same location.
Most importantly, FMCSA must use its imminent hazard authority proactively, not reactively. When companies show patterns of serious crashes, they should be shut down before more people die.
The Pattern
The Diamond Freight/Northwest Freight network isn't unique. Similar chameleon operations are running across the country, cycling through corporate names while leaving trails of destruction on American highways.
These networks exploit gaps in federal oversight, corporate liability laws, and safety tracking systems. They count on regulatory agencies being too bureaucratic, too overwhelmed, or too corrupt to connect the dots between crashes and corporate reincarnations.
They're usually right. Federal agencies issue press releases about cracking down on unsafe carriers, while the same operators simply change names and keep killing people.
Why This Matters
The chameleon carrier problem represents everything wrong with federal transportation safety oversight.
Regulators have the legal authority to stop these operations. They have access to ownership records, corporate filings, and crash data. They could easily track patterns and shut down networks before they kill people. Instead, they choose to play along with the shell game, treating each corporate incarnation as a fresh start regardless of the carnage left behind.
Meanwhile, legitimate trucking companies, the ones that actually invest in safety, training, and compliance, watch chameleon carriers undercut them with artificially low rates enabled by cutting safety corners. It's a system that punishes responsible operators and rewards criminal networks. And it's getting people killed every day.
Federal agencies can keep pretending that shutting down companies after fatal crashes constitutes meaningful enforcement. They can keep treating each USDOT number as a separate entity regardless of obvious connections.
Or they can start taking highway safety seriously.
The Diamond Freight network killed at least three people across multiple corporate identities. Their operations probably continue today under a different name, waiting for the next driver to fall asleep, the next family to die, the next federal agency to look the other way.
How many more people have to die before someone in Washington decides this shell game has gone on long enough?