Guard nabbed in sting operation
Prison employee charged with attempting to smuggle drugs
Agents arrested a prison guard Tuesday after catching him in a sting operation trying to smuggle drugs into the prison in Santa Fe, according to a spokeswoman for the New Mexico State Police.
Lt. Elizabeth Armijo wrote in a news release that State Police officers were asked by prison officials last week to investigate whether John Aragon, 60, of Albuquerque was being paid to bring drugs into the Penitentiary of New Mexico.
A confidential informant told a corrections official that Aragon had been getting paid to sneak drugs into the prison for the inmates, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.
So investigators set up an undercover operation and offered to pay Aragon $1,500 to bring suboxone and heroin into the prison, Armijo said.
They met up at the Sandia Casino on Tuesday afternoon.
“The undercover agent pulled into the parking lot and John entered his truck,” an agent wrote in a criminal complaint. “During this time, John acknowledged that he was there to pick up money and the drugs.”
Agents arrested Aragon and charged him with possession of narcotics with the intent to distribute. He was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center and was released on a $2,500 bond Wednesday morning.
A spokesman for the New Mexico Corrections Department said Aragon had been working as a corrections officer since February 2009 and had passed a criminal background check when he was hired. He doesn’t have any criminal history in New Mexico, according to online court records.
“He has been placed on administrative leave with pay since his arrest,” said S.U. Mahesh, spokesman for the Department of Corrections.