A former Guatemalan congressman, who was tasked with combating drug trafficking, was arrested in the United States, where he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking on Wednesday, authorities reported.
José Armando Ubico Aguilar, 45, arrived in the United States from Central America and was arrested last week, detailed in a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice. The Guatemalan Ministry of the Interior informed that Ubico was not extradited.
Ubico served for several years as the chairman of the National Defense Committee of the Congress of Guatemala and served as a congressman until the beginning of 2024. He pleaded guilty to an “international drug trafficking conspiracy” before Federal Judge Kimberly Priest Johnson in the Eastern District of Texas.
“As a high-ranking leader in the Republic of Guatemala, Ubico was entrusted with promoting the fight against drug traffickers pushing illegal narcotics into the United States,” said Damien M. Diggs, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.
“Furthermore, as the Chairman of the National Defense Committee of the Congress of Guatemala, Ubico was partly responsible for his own country’s national security. Instead, he betrayed it when he decided to associate with known drug traffickers and other corrupt officials,” he added.
On March 3, 2021, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Texas indicted Ubico for drug trafficking. “During his guilty plea hearing, Ubico Aguilar admitted his role in the conspiracy, including the transmission of drug-related information and U.S. money to another Guatemalan official on behalf of an international drug trafficker,” said the statement from the Department of Justice, which did not detail the names of others involved.
His actions allowed the safe transit of at least 450 kilograms of cocaine through Guatemala for distribution in the United States. The former congressman faces a minimum sentence of 10 years to life imprisonment.
Guatemalan justice removed Ubico’s parliamentary immunity in June 2023, months after the United States requested his extradition. The then-congressman unsuccessfully tried to stop the process from continuing.
According to the Guatemalan press, the former parliamentarian had already been convicted of drug trafficking in the United States in 2003 and released in 2005.
