Marlon Alexis Aguilar Reyes, a 44-year-old Guatemalan national living in Miami under an alias before his arrest in 2024, has been sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell to 24 years and four months in federal prison for conspiring to import more than five kilograms of cocaine into the United States. The sentencing was announced on March 17 by U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe. Aguilar Reyes pleaded guilty on July 23, 2025.
The case highlights ongoing efforts by law enforcement agencies to combat international drug trafficking organizations that use violence and corruption to move narcotics into the United States.
According to court documents, Aguilar Reyes played a supervisory role within an organization that received shipments of cocaine from South America off the coast of Guatemala. The drugs were then transported north through Guatemala and smuggled into Mexico before being imported into the United States. The organization included a cartel member in Mexico, a corrupt law enforcement officer, and the former mayor of Tecun Uman, Guatemala. Investigators found that throughout 2018, Aguilar Reyes negotiated multimillion-dollar cocaine deals in Mexico, received updates about the murder of a rival, and was informed by a corrupt officer about police activity near drug operations.
The investigation involved multiple agencies: the U.S. Coast Guard, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and Guatemalan authorities. The U.S. Marshals Service assisted in locating and apprehending Aguilar Reyes. Assistant United States Attorney Dan Baeza prosecuted the case.
This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159: Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF brings together various government agencies to target criminal cartels and transnational organizations operating both inside and outside the United States. Special emphasis is placed on crimes involving children and removing violent criminal aliens from the country.
