Reported / Citable
PLANO, Texas – Eastern District of Texas U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs and Criminal Chief Matt Quinn were part of a delegation including five U.S. Attorneys and lead prosecutors from nine federal districts in an unprecedented visit to Guatemala this week.
Chargé d’Affaires Jorgan Andrews welcomed a delegation of senior officials from the U.S. Department of Justice in a visit to Guatemala to advance the Trump Administration’s policy of eliminating cartels and transnational criminal organizations, securing borders, and protecting American citizens from transnational threats. Their presence in the country reflects the seriousness with which the U.S. government addresses transnational crime and our commitment to confronting it together with Guatemala, by pursuing drug traffickers and human smugglers, their enablers, and those who provide them protection, including narco-linked politicians.
“The Eastern District of Texas, in coordination with the DEA and the government of Guatemala, has made great strides in stripping corrupt mayors of their immunity under Guatemalan law so they may be prosecuted for their crimes in the United States,” said U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs. “We have successfully brought four corrupt Guatemalan mayors and one corrupt member of congress in Guatemala to justice.”
The delegation met with President Bernardo Arévalo, Attorney General Gabriel García Luna, and Minister of the Interior Marco Antonio Villeda to strengthen coordination and reaffirm the U.S commitment to supporting Guatemala’s investigative capacity and judicial processes to build criminal cases for prosecution in U.S. courts. Curbing the flow of narcotics, money laundering, and human trafficking and smuggling into the United States makes our countries and the Western Hemisphere safer.
At the conclusion of the meeting, U.S. Attorney Combs boarded a plane and accompanied four indicted individuals from Guatemala to the United States, including Juan Carlos Cruz Ovalle. Ovalle was indicted in 2018 and is alleged to have trafficked multi-ton quantities of cocaine from Guatemala for distribution to the United States. The defendants appeared in federal court in Plano on September 25, 2026. It is important to note that a federal indictment is not evidence of guilt and all defendants are considered innocent until proven guilty.
These cases are in support of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Dallas comprises agents and officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Dallas Field Office; U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations – Dallas (ICE-HSI); Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Dallas Field Division; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Dallas Field Division; Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations (IRS-CD; United States Postal Service, United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS); Transportation Security Administration, Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS); United States Secret Service (USSS); Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DSS); TEXOMA HIDTA; and U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) Eastern District of Texas.
The Guatemala delegation meeting included federal prosecutors from the Eastern District of Texas, Northern District of Texas, Southern District of Texas, Western District of Texas, Southern District of California, District of Arizona, District of New Mexico, Southern District of Florida, and Northern District of New York, along with senior leaders of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, represented by Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Skaret, Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA) and Vulcan (JTFV), and officials from the DEA, FBI, and HSI. The Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT), represented by Director Erik Peterson, coordinated the visit.
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Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office — Eastern District of Texas — U.S. Department of Justice press release.