Smuggler Who Packed 35 Migrants in Hot Tractor-Trailer Gets 9 Years in Prison A federal court in Laredo, Texas, sentenced a local man to more than nine years in prison for packing 35 migrants into a hot tractor-trailer in June 2019. Many of the migrants lost consciousness from the heat and lack of oxygen in the sealed trailer. U.S. District Court Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo sentenced 52-year-old Juan Contreras this week to a federal prison sentence of 110 months, according to information obtained from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Texas. Contreras pleaded guilty to the human smuggling attempt in February 2020.