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 Mar. 17 by U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe.
Aguilar Reyes pleaded guilty on July 23, 2025. His case highlights the ongoing efforts of law enforcement agencies to dismantle international drug trafficking organizations that use violence and corruption to operate across borders.
Court documents show that Aguilar Reyes played an oversight role within a criminal organization responsible for receiving vessels of cocaine from South America off the coast of Guatemala, transporting the drugs north through Guatemala, and smuggling them into Mexico for eventual importation 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 smuggling operations.
The investigation involved multiple agencies: the U.S. Coast Guard, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and Guatemalan authorities participated in uncovering Aguilar Reyes’s activities. The U.S. Marshals Service assisted with locating and apprehending him. 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.
