Guatemalan National Convicted Of NY Attempted Murder For Hire Admits Illegally Reentering U.S.

A Guatemala man with a prior New York conviction for an attempted murder-for-hire scheme pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegally reentering the U.S.

Mario Ramiro Aragon-Ruano, 43, entered the guilty plea to unlawful reentry of a removed alien, in a proceeding before U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver in Hartford, Connecticut.

Aragon-Ruano was most recently arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut, in January, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Prosecutors said he has multiple aliases, including Mario Ramiro Aragon and Jose Juana-Zapata.

His criminal record dates back several years, according to the government.

In 2006, U.S. Border Patrol agents in Arizona encountered Aragon-Ruano, who was using an alias, and deported him back to Guatemala. He was warned he could not return to the U.S. for five years, but he re-entered the country and was arrested in 2007, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

In 2008, Aragon-Ruano was convicted, under the alias Mario Ramiro Aragon, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on a federal charge of arranging a murder for hire. He was sentenced to 87 months in prison. At the time, he was living in New City, in Rockland County. Prosecutors said he had paid an undercover law enforcement officer to murder his brother-in-law, giving a $200 advance payment toward the $500 cost. Aragon-Ruano gave the undercover officer a description of the intended victim, and showed the officer where the man lived and identified him in a photograph, prosecutors said.

In 2013, Aragon-Ruano was deported back to Guatemala again.

In 2019, U.S. Border Patrol encountered Aragon-Ruano in Arizona, and he was convicted of illegally reentering the country after being deported. He was sentenced to 13 months and one day in prison. He was deported to Guatemala a third time in July 2020, prosecutors said.

Aragon-Ruano unlawfully reentered the U.S. again, and on Jan. 10, 2026, Waterbury police arrested and charged him with first-degree criminal trespass and second-degree breach of peace.

After Aragon-Ruano was released on bond on the Waterbury charges, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him on Jan. 12 in Waterbury.

Aragon-Ruano, who has been in custody since his January arrest, is scheduled to be sentenced on the illegal reentering count on July 1. He faces up to 20 years imprisonment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.