US JUDGE SENTENCES RIGOBERTO MIRANDA-OROZCO TO 30 YEARS

US District Judge Orlando Garcia sentenced Rigoberto Miranda-Orozco to 30 years in federal prison on Tuesday for his role in a 2022 smuggling operation that left 53 migrants dead in San Antonio, Texas. Miranda-Orozco admitted arranging travel and accommodation for two people who died and a third who suffered serious injuries. He pleaded guilty in July to charges including conspiracy to bring a person into the United States resulting in death. Guatemalan authorities arrested him in 2024, and he was extradited to the United States the following year.

Authorities found a trailer carrying 64 migrants near Quintana Road in southwest San Antonio on 27 June 2022. The vehicle had travelled from Laredo without functioning air conditioning in temperatures of around 90F (32C), according to authorities. First responders pronounced 48 people dead at the scene, and five others died in hospital. Eleven people survived with injuries. US Attorney Justin Simmons said investigators found discarded clothing and marks on the trailer walls: “They were literally trying to claw their way out.”

Prosecutors said migrants had paid up to $15,000 each to cross the US border. Simmons said Miranda-Orozco continued arranging smuggling journeys after learning that people he had previously transported had died in the trailer. A. Tysen Duva, an assistant attorney general in the US Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said nine members of the smuggling organisation had been convicted in the United States and another 10 in Guatemala. Other defendants still await sentencing.