Mario Ramiro Aragon-Ruano, Unlawful Reentry, Connecticut 2026

Grimy Times has learned that a Guatemalan national has been charged with illegally reentering the United States after being deported.

Mario Ramiro Aragon-Ruano, 38, a citizen of Guatemala, has been charged by federal criminal complaint with illegally reentering the United States after being deported.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Aragon-Ruano, using the name Jose Juana-Zapata, was encountered by U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona in August 2006. He was deported to Guatemala later that month and warned that he could not return to the U.S. for a period of five years.

Despite the warning, Aragon-Ruano subsequently reentered the U.S. and was arrested 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 charge of murder for hire, and was sentenced to 87 months of imprisonment.

In September 2013, he was again deported to Guatemala. In July 2019, U.S. Border Patrol encountered Aragon-Ruano in Arizona. In January 2020, he was convicted in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona for illegally reentering the U.S. after being deported and he was sentenced to 13 months and one day of imprisonment.

A third deportation followed in July 2020. Aragon-Ruano subsequently unlawfully reentered the U.S. On January 10, 2026, he was arrested by Waterbury Police and charged with criminal trespass in the first degree and breach of peace in the second degree.

After Aragon-Ruano was released on bond on those state charges, he was arrested by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations on January 12, 2026, in Waterbury. Aragon-Ruano appeared today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas O. Farrish in Hartford and was ordered detained.

U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan stressed that 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.

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