Aaron Leopoldo Aguirre-Gutierrez, a 50-year-old resident of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, was sentenced to 48 months in prison and three years of supervised release for his involvement in a cocaine distribution conspiracy. The sentencing took place on January 20, 2026, before U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins in Tucson, Arizona.
Aguirre-Gutierrez had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Authorities reported that between February 24 and August 2024, Aguirre-Gutierrez and others were involved in distributing approximately 19 kilograms of powder cocaine in Tucson.
The case was investigated as part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. According to officials: "The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States."
The investigation included contributions from agents with the FBI; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI); Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); and Pima County Sheriff’s Department. Prosecution was led by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Petermann from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona.
More information about this case can be found at http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/
