Raul O. Aguilar joins Auror as Senior Director of Law Enforcement Partnerships

Criminal investigations senior leader Raul O. Aguilar has joined Auror as Senior Director of Law Enforcement Partnerships. Prior to joining Auror, Raul served as the Deputy Assistant Director for the Countering Transnational Organized Crime, Financial and Fraud Division for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) – the principal investigative component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Raul will be focused on helping drive better and safer law enforcement outcomes for retailers through Auror’s Retail Crime Intelligence platform.

We spoke to Raul about his global career journey and why he joined the Retail Crime Intelligence movement at Auror.

Can you give us an overview of your career journey? 

I’ve had the honor of serving as a criminal investigator since 1998, starting off my career as a special agent in California with the legacy US Customs Service. During my 25 years of service, I had stops in Mexico in the early-mid 2000’s and Argentina for three years as the Homeland Security Investigations Attaché for the Southern Cone of the Americas.

The last ten years as a public servant I had the privilege of serving in a multitude of senior executive roles throughout the National Capitol Region. The one that stands out in my mind was serving as the Deputy Special in Charge for HSI at the U.S. Department of Justice, Special Operations Division in Northern Virginia. The primary mission of the multi-agency setting involved utilizing a whole of government approach to maximize impact against transnational criminal organizations.

I really enjoyed getting agencies to work together and breaking down silos. It was there that I learned the potential of data, technology, and – when it's shared correctly – how impactful it can be in bringing down transnational criminal networks.

My most recent position I held as I closed out my government service was serving as a Senior Executive for the Countering Transnational Organized Crime, Financial and Fraud Division for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). I led programmatic oversight of HSI’s strategic planning, national policy implementation, and the development and execution of operational initiatives for various programmatic areas targeting transnational criminal organizations involved in money laundering, financial fraud, labor exploitation, and related crimes enforced by HSI including organized retail crime.

What led you to get involved in this field initially?

I’ve always wanted to help people and love engaging with the community. Becoming a criminal investigator was a dream of mine during college so I was very fortunate to join at a young age, a few years removed from university. Protecting the vulnerable and bringing those who commit crimes to justice has been my life’s work and I’m extremely proud and grateful for the journey.

Why Auror? Why now?

In life, timing is everything. I was blessed to spend the last two years of my career in government, building the National Organized Retail Crime Initiative at Homeland Security Investigations with a great team and this afforded me the opportunity to meet the awesome leadership team at Auror. Once I saw how Auror treats its people and how the Auror community interacts together, I wanted to join immediately.

Auror is an amazing company that focuses on customer service, building lasting partnerships between retailers and law enforcement with an incredible platform to securely share data, reduce crime, loss, and harm in the retail environment. Auror literature states “it takes a network to defeat a network” and those words resonate with me because it was our mantra at the center of excellence (SOD) in Northern Virginia. I enjoy breaking down silos and getting people, agencies, and institutions to work together. It’s what I’ve done my whole career so I’m very excited to continue that work with Auror.

I really want to make a difference in the industry by helping uncover actionable intelligence to keep stores safer and to help law enforcement dismantle and disrupt transnational criminal syndicates.

What’s Raul doing for fun outside of work?

I enjoy getting up early, listening to a podcast for motivation, then hitting the gym to get my day started. I spend most of my free time traveling to visit family and friends with my wife and kids. I do like to play golf, however I’m not that good. (If I break 100 then it’s a good day.)

Welcome to the movement, Raul – we can’t wait to see the impact you’ll drive in this role!

Keep reading: Strengthening collaboration between retail & law enforcement