SAN ANTONIO – A Guatemalan man has pleaded guilty for his role in a 2022 mass-casualty human smuggling incident in San Antonio that left 53 people dead and 11 others injured, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
According to court documents, Miranda-Orozco conspired with other human smugglers to facilitate the travel of multiple people from Guatemala through Mexico and ultimately into the United States. Prosecutors said he organized and facilitated the smuggling of multiple people for illegal entry who ended up dying or being injured in the back of a tractor-trailer found in San Antonio on June 27, 2022.
Investigators determined the tractor-trailer carried 64 people and traveled about 156 miles from Laredo to San Antonio in 90-degree heat without functioning air conditioning in the trailer, according to court documents. First responders pronounced 48 people dead at the scene, and five others later died at the hospital, bringing the total to 53. Among the dead were six juveniles and at least one pregnant woman, the Justice Department said…