A U.S. federal judge in San Antonio on Friday sentenced Felipe Orduna-Torres to two concurrent life terms plus 20 years and Armando Gonzales-Ortega to 87 years in prison for their roles in the deaths of 53 migrants found inside an overheating tractor-trailer three years ago. Each man was also ordered to pay a $250,000 fine. The sentences were imposed by District Judge Orlando Garcia on the third anniversary of the 27 June 2022 tragedy, which remains the deadliest human-smuggling incident on record at the U.S.–Mexico border. Jurors in March had convicted Orduna-Torres, identified by prosecutors as the U.S. leader of the ring, and Gonzales-Ortega, his chief coordinator, of conspiracy and transportation charges that resulted in death and serious injury. Investigators said the pair oversaw the loading of 66 migrants into a trailer whose air-conditioning unit was broken for a three-hour trip from Laredo to San Antonio, where temperatures exceeded 100 °F. Forty-eight victims were dead when authorities opened the trailer; five more died at hospitals. The dead included six children and a pregnant woman; only 11 people survived. According to court filings, migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico had paid between $12,000 and $15,000 each for the journey. Prosecutors estimate the organisation smuggled about 1,100 people between November 2021 and June 2022, collecting roughly $13 million. “These criminals will spend the rest of their lives in prison because of their cruel choice to profit from human suffering,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement, while U.S. Attorney Justin Simmons called the sentences a milestone in the government’s effort to dismantle smuggling networks. Five additional defendants—among them truck driver Homero Zamorano Jr.—have pleaded guilty and are scheduled for sentencing later this year, each facing potential life terms. A sixth suspect extradited from Guatemala awaits trial in September. The case underscores continuing risks along the border, where earlier mass-death incidents have claimed scores of lives in 2017 and 2003.