By Eric M. Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 8, 2006

The former head of Guatemala's drug enforcement agency and his top deputy pleaded guilty at the federal courthouse in Washington yesterday to conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States.

Adan Castillo and his deputy, Jorge Aguilar Garcia, were to stand trial yesterday on charges stemming from a U.S.-led sting into allegations of high-level collusion with drug traffickers. But before jury selection began, they pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. Under terms of their plea agreements with U.S. prosecutors, Castillo and Garcia each face 10-year prison terms. After that, they will be deported to Guatemala.

Judge Rosemary M. Collyer approved the plea agreements in a short hearing yesterday. Both men will be sentenced Nov. 17.

A third defendant, Rubilio Orlando Palacios, the former head of security at the port of Santo Tomas on Guatemala's Caribbean coast, has not agreed to a deal with federal prosecutors and faces a trial.

Castillo, 42, was the chief of SAIA (Servicio de Analisis e Informacion Antinarcoticos), the Guatemalan law enforcement agency responsible for investigating drug trafficking. It is Guatemala's equivalent of the U.S. government's Drug Enforcement Administration.

He and the others were arrested in November after a five-month investigation led by U.S. authorities that relied heavily on an informant, who posed as a drug trafficker looking for help in moving cocaine into the United States.

In secretly-recorded meetings with the informant, Castillo said that he and Garcia, 51, did not expect to remain in their jobs much longer, but they would try to make the most of their power while still in charge, according to court documents. The plan hatched between Castillo and the informant called for two separate 2,000-kilogram loads of cocaine to be transported by container through the port of Santo Tomas. Orlando would ensure that the containers were not searched, the documents said.

Meanwhile, the informant agreed to send a much smaller shipment later that would be seized so it would appear that the SAIA was doing its job, according to court papers filed by prosecutors.

At one point, Castillo was videotaped in a restaurant accepting $10,000 from the informant; the cash was hidden inside a magazine. Garcia was seated next to him. A later search of Castillo's office found $22,000 in cash and several packets of cocaine, authorities said.

According to a statement of facts that Castillo and Garcia signed yesterday, the men accepted and shared a total of $25,000 in the cocaine smuggling operation. Plans called for the drugs to move from Guatemala through Mexico and into the United States.

As authorities were finalizing the investigation, they developed a ruse to get the three Guatemalan officers into the United States. They issued a phony invitation to a training exercise on port security that supposedly was to take place at a U.S. Marine base in Quantico. The three men were arrested Nov. 15 before the purported training was to begin. They have been jailed ever since.

Castillo's arrest shocked Guatemalans, who thought his leadership of the SAIA would be a departure from the long list of corrupt officials who cut deals with drug traffickers. He was known as a deeply religious family man who would hold prayer sessions for officers.

U.S. officials say smugglers transport Colombian cocaine to the United States through Central America, sometimes landing aircraft in the Petan, a large unpatrolled area near Guatemala's northern border with Mexico. The drugs are then transported on vehicles through Mexico and across the U.S. border.

Appearing in court yesterday, Castillo paid rapt attention to the voice of the Spanish translator and nodded respectfully as the judge spoke.

Under the plea agreement, he and Garcia will be allowed to keep their homes in Guatemala, but they relinquished rights to any cash or items related to the conspiracy.