News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 8, 2006
Contact: (202) 514-2008

Former Guatemalan Senior Anti-Narcotics Officers Plead Guilty to Conspiracy to Manufacture and Distribute Cocaine

(WASHINGTON , D.C.) - Two former senior Guatemalan anti-narcotics law enforcement officers pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to a charge of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute cocaine, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher announced, today.

Adan Castillo Aguilar and Jorge Aguilar Garcia, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, knowing and intending that the cocaine would be imported into the United States.

The defendants are former senior officials of the Servicio de Analisis e Informacion Anti-narcoticos (SAIA), the lead anti-narcotics police agency in Guatemala. Castillo Aguilar was the chief of that agency and Aguilar Garcia was the second in command.

"No one is above the law. When police officers accept money to help drug traffickers, they abuse their special trust and poison the society they are sworn to protect. We will pursue and prosecute these criminals to the full extent of the law. This case demonstrates international team work at its best, and I want to thank the Attorney General and the other Guatemalan officials who cooperated with this prosecution," said Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher for the Criminal Division.

During late 2005, the defendants met with undercover informants working for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and accepted $25,000 as a down payment to protect a shipment of cocaine through Guatemala for shipment to the United States. Following their agreement to protect the shipment, the DEA invited the defendants to attend anti-narcotics training in the United States. Upon their arrival to Virginia, and unaware they had been indicted by a federal grand jury, the defendants were arrested on Nov. 15, 2005.

Sentencing for Castillo Aguilar and Aguilar Garcia is scheduled for Nov. 17, 2006.

The case was prosecuted by trial attorneys Michael Mota and Paul Laymon from the Justice Department's Criminal Division, Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section.