Guatemalan smuggler sentenced over 2022 San Antonio migrant truck deaths
A Guatemalan man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in a smuggling operation that left 53 migrants dead in San Antonio, Texas, according to federal prosecutors. The victims were transported in a tractor-trailer without functioning air conditioning.
Rigoberto Ramon Miranda-Orozco, 39, was sentenced on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). He pleaded guilty on July 2 to conspiracy and aiding and abetting human-smuggling offenses resulting in death and serious bodily injury.
The tractor-trailer was carrying 64 migrants when it was found in San Antonio on June 27, 2022. Authorities determined that it had traveled about 156 miles from Laredo in 90-degree heat without working air conditioning in the trailer.
First responders pronounced 48 people dead at the scene, and five others later died at hospitals. Eleven people survived with injuries. Those killed included six minors and one pregnant woman.
Twenty-one of the victims were from Guatemala. Two were clients whose journeys the defendant had arranged, while a third client suffered serious injuries and survived after a lengthy hospital stay.
According to court documents, he worked with other smugglers to move migrants from Guatemala through Mexico and into the United States. He admitted arranging their transportation and accommodations throughout the journey.
“Miranda-Orozco and his co-conspirators treated human lives as cargo, knowingly placing vulnerable people in lethal conditions to advance their criminal enterprise,” said John A. Condon, acting executive associate director of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
The defendant was arrested in Guatemala in August 2024 at the United States’ request. His arrest was part of a wider operation in which Guatemalan authorities executed multiple search and arrest warrants across the country.
He was extradited to the United States in March 2025.
