A Guatemalan citizen, Mario Ramiro Aragon-Ruano, also known as Mario Ramiro Aragon and Jose Juana-Zapata, has been charged with illegally reentering the United States after being deported. The announcement was made by David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Aragon-Ruano was first encountered by U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona in August 2006 under the name Jose Juana-Zapata. He was deported to Guatemala later that month and informed he could not return to the U.S. for five years. Despite this warning, he reentered the country and was arrested again in 2007.
In August 2008, using the name Mario Ramiro Aragon, he was convicted in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on a federal charge of murder for hire and sentenced to 87 months in prison. He was deported to Guatemala again in September 2013.
Aragon-Ruano was encountered once more by U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona in July 2019. In January 2020, he was convicted in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona for illegal reentry after deportation and received a sentence of just over one year before being deported a third time in July 2020.
He is alleged to have unlawfully reentered the United States again after this third removal. On January 10, 2026, Waterbury Police arrested him on charges of criminal trespass and breach of peace. After his release on bond from these state charges, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations arrested him on January 12, 2026.
Aragon-Ruano appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas O. Farrish in Hartford where he was ordered detained pending further proceedings.
If found guilty of unlawful reentry, Aragon-Ruano faces up to twenty years imprisonment.
U.S. Attorney Sullivan stated: “a complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The investigation is being conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Enforcement and Removal Operations with prosecution led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Neeraj N. Patel.
This case falls under Operation Take Back America, an initiative aimed at using Department of Justice resources to address illegal immigration issues as well as combat cartels and transnational criminal organizations while seeking to protect communities from violent crime.
