MARIO RAMIRO ARAGON-RUANO, a citizen of Guatemala, pleaded guilty on Apr. 9 before U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver in Hartford to the charge of unlawful reentry of a removed alien, according to an announcement by David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
Aragon-Ruano’s case highlights ongoing efforts by federal authorities to address repeated illegal entries into the United States by individuals with prior criminal convictions and deportations.
Court documents show that Aragon-Ruano was first encountered by U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona in August 2006 under the name Jose Juana-Zapata and was deported to Guatemala later that month with a warning not to return for five years. He returned and was arrested again in 2007. In August 2008, he was convicted under the name Mario Ramiro Aragon in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on a federal murder for hire charge and sentenced to over seven years in prison before being deported again in September 2013.
After another illegal entry, Aragon-Ruano was found by Border Patrol agents in Arizona in July 2019 and convicted once more for illegal reentry in January 2020, receiving a sentence of just over one year before his third deportation in July 2020. Most recently, he unlawfully entered the country again and was arrested by Waterbury Police on Jan. 10, 2026, facing state charges including criminal trespass and breach of peace; two days later he was taken into custody by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Aragon-Ruano has remained detained since his arrest earlier this year. Sentencing is scheduled for July 1, at which time he faces up to twenty years imprisonment.
The investigation is being conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Enforcement and Removal Operations; Assistant U.S. Attorney Neeraj N. Patel is prosecuting the case.
This prosecution falls under Operation Take Back America—a Department of Justice initiative aimed at combating illegal immigration as well as transnational criminal organizations.