Rigoberto Ramon Miranda-Orozco, a Guatemalan national, was sentenced to 30 years in U.S. prison Tuesday for helping arrange a 2022 smuggling trip that killed 53 people in Texas.
The Justice Department said 64 people were inside the trailer and 11 survived with injuries. It traveled about 156 miles from Laredo to San Antonio without working air conditioning in roughly 90-degree Fahrenheit heat.
By the time emergency workers reached the trailer on June 27, 2022, 48 people had died. Five more died at a hospital. Six children and at least one pregnant woman were among those killed, and 21 of the dead were from Guatemala, the department said.
Miranda-Orozco acknowledged organizing migrants’ travel and places to stay in Guatemala, Mexico and the United States. Two Guatemalan clients died; another client survived serious injuries after a lengthy hospital stay, according to the department.
He pleaded guilty July 2 to three offenses involving smuggling that resulted in death or serious injury. They included a conspiracy charge and two aiding-and-abetting charges, the Justice Department said.
Prosecutors alleged in 2024 that Miranda-Orozco charged migrants or their families and friends about $12,000 to $15,000 for the journey. In an account of the wider conspiracy, the Justice Department said participants shared routes and equipment to lower costs and increase profits.
Guatemalan authorities arrested Miranda-Orozco in August 2024 following a U.S. extradition request. He was extradited to the United States in March 2025.
The Associated Press reported that his lawyer, Alfonso Cabanas Jr., said Miranda-Orozco was in Guatemala during the trailer journey and did not know its air conditioning had failed.
Two others convicted in the conspiracy were sentenced in June 2025: Felipe Orduna-Torres received life in prison, and Armando Gonzales-Ortega received 83 years. The San Antonio Express-News reported that the truck’s driver, Homero Zamorano Jr., is expected to be sentenced in December.
