SAN ANTONIO – More than four years after 53 people died inside a sweltering tractor-trailer on San Antonio’s Southwest Side, another man involved in the deadly human smuggling operation has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.

Rigoberto Ramon Miranda-Orozco, 49, of Guatemala, received the sentence Tuesday for his role in the June 27, 2022, tragedy, one of the deadliest human smuggling incidents in U.S. history.

Alien smuggling organizations rely on people like Miranda-Orozco to facilitate their criminal conspiracies and put people on the dangerous path of illegally entering the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “By refusing to secure our borders, the Biden administration empowered human smugglers across the globe to take advantage of our country and break our laws for financial gain. These smugglers value profits over people, and their disregard of the risks or dangerous conditions in which they carry out their schemes too often result in tragic consequences like in this case with 53 people dead.

Miranda-Orozco previously pleaded guilty to helping organize the transportation of migrants from Guatemala through Mexico and into the United States. Prosecutors said two Guatemalan citizens whose journeys he helped arrange were among those who died.

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Of the dozens of deceased aliens found in the tractor trailer in June 2022, 21 of those were from Guatemala — a country that Mirando-Orozco called home and a place where he thought he could hide from justice,” said U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas. “He was wrong. Miranda-Orozco was personally responsible for smuggling two Guatemalans who died in that horrific tragedy, and thanks to our law enforcement efforts and our strong partnership with the Office of the Attorney General of Guatemala, he was found, extradited, and will now spend the rest of his life in a U.S. federal prison. To those who believe they can avoid accountability by cowering in a foreign country, Miranda-Orozco thought the same. Because of this Administration’s commitment to holding accountable all of those who support transnational criminal organizations, he now knows otherwise.

Investigators said 64 people were packed inside a tractor-trailer that traveled approximately 156 miles from Laredo to San Antonio in temperatures reaching 90 degrees. The trailer had no functioning air conditioning.

By the time the truck was discovered on Quintana Road, 48 people were dead. Five others later died at hospitals, bringing the death toll to 53. Eleven people survived.

Among those who lost their lives were six children and at least one pregnant woman.

Even after the deaths Miranda-Orozco continued his smuggling operations.

“Within a couple weeks, this defendant was already setting up trips for other aliens. He knew that the people he moved previously died in the back of that trailer.” said Simmons.

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Miranda-Orozco was arrested in Guatemala in August 2024 during an international operation targeting people connected to the smuggling organization. He was extradited to the United States in March 2025.

He pleaded guilty to charges involving conspiracy to bring people into the country resulting in death, as well as helping bring people into the country resulting in death and serious bodily injury.