GREENBELT, MD - A 30-year-old twice-deported illegal immigrant from Honduras has been convicted for a murder-for-hire plot, along with several other charges. The defendant reportedly targeted a would-be victim whom he believed was working with federal authorities..
In a July 24 press release from the Justice Department, officials confirmed that 30-year-old Frelin Hernandez Guardado was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison following his convictions for murder-for-hire, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and prohibited possession of a firearm.
Authorities said Hernandez Guardado sold firearms to confidential informants on two separate occasions in October 2021. In addition to the alleged trafficking, federal law prohibits illegal aliens from possessing firearms. Two months after the firearms deals, authorities executed a search warrant ‘targeting a local drug trafficking network,’ leading Hernandez Guardado to suspect that an informant had tipped them off.
In the wake of the arrests stemming from the executed search warrants, Hernandez Guardado revealed to two confidential informants “that he intended to kill an individual whom he believed had cooperated with law enforcement,” reportedly offering one of the informants some “discounted cocaine” in exchange for assistance with the murder plot.
On January 12, 2022, Hernandez Guardado was accompanied by a confidential informant when the two left his Virginia residence carrying more than 900 grams of cocaine that was intended to be sold at a discount to fund the murder plot.. However, Maryland law enforcement was able to intercept Hernandez Guardado before the plan could come to fruition.
U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland Judge Paula Xinis, who was appointed to the court back in 2016 following a nomination by President Barack Obama, handed down the 12-year sentence. Judge Xinis is the same judge who was at the center of the controversial 2025 case against the Trump administration, in which she ordered the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia after he was deported to El Salvador by immigration officials.
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