A San Antonio federal judge sentenced Rigoberto Ramon Miranda-Orozco to 30 years in the 2022 Quintana Road smuggling deaths.

Thirty years is the term the Justice Department announced. It is not the life term U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons described when he said Miranda-Orozco will spend the rest of his life in federal prison. FOX San Antonio listed his age as 49. The department, KENS 5 and KTSA said 39. KSAT reported five other defendants are still waiting to be sentenced.

A federal judge in San Antonio on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, sentenced Rigoberto Ramon Miranda-Orozco to 30 years in prison for his role in the June 27, 2022, smuggling deaths on Quintana Road, the Justice Department said. The department said he is 39. KSAT reported U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia imposed 30 years on multiple charges and that officials were not specific about which count carried which part of the term. KENS 5 and KTSA also reported the age as 39. FOX San Antonio reported he is 49. Thirty-nine and forty-nine are not the same age. This story uses 39 because that is the age in the Justice Department's written announcement.

Miranda-Orozco pleaded guilty on July 2, 2026, to conspiracy to bring an alien into the United States resulting in death, aiding and abetting bringing an alien into the United States resulting in death, and aiding and abetting bringing an alien into the United States resulting in serious bodily injury, the Justice Department said. He was arrested in Guatemala in August 2024 on a U.S. extradition request and extradited in March 2025, the department said. KSAT reported the same arrest, extradition and July plea.

The Justice Department said he conspired with other smugglers to move people from Guatemala through Mexico and into the United States, and that he organized travel for people who ended up in the trailer. The trailer held 64 people and had traveled about 156 miles from Laredo to San Antonio in 90-degree heat with no working air conditioning, the department said. First responders pronounced 48 people dead at the scene. Five more died at a hospital. The total was 53 dead and 11 injured. The department said the dead included six juveniles and at least one pregnant woman. They are not named here. Two of his clients, both from Guatemala, died in the trailer, and a third was seriously hurt and survived a long hospital stay, the department said. KSAT reported that Simmons, at a Tuesday news conference, called Miranda-Orozco "personally responsible" for the deaths of two Guatemalans and said the third "suffered tremendously."

KSAT reported that Simmons said evidence in court showed Miranda-Orozco began arranging more trips within weeks of learning about the deaths. "He knew that the people he'd moved previously died in the back of that trailer and he was already setting up other trips totally discarding the loss of life that he had just learned about," Simmons said, according to KSAT. KSAT also reported that Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva, asked in court whether Miranda-Orozco was remorseful, said he was, and that Miranda-Orozco said "he thought he was doing them a favor." That exchange is not in the Justice Department's written release. In the release, Simmons said Miranda-Orozco "will now spend the rest of his life in a U.S. federal prison." The term the department and KSAT reported the judge imposed is 30 years.

KSAT reported that other men in the same investigation have already been sentenced. It reported Armando Gonzales-Ortega, whom it called the alleged coordinator, received 87 years and six months, and that Felipe Orduna-Torres received two life sentences and a consecutive 20-year sentence. It reported Duva said five defendants are still awaiting sentencing and one remains a fugitive, and that the truck driver, Homero Zamorano, is scheduled to be sentenced in December. Those are separate cases and dates. Tuesday's judgment is the 30-year sentence on the counts Miranda-Orozco admitted. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.