Suspects used GPS devices in Southlake shooting

Three men accused of gunning down a lawyer at Southlake Town Square used surveillance cameras and vehicle tracking devices to watch the movements of their target and figure out the best time to strike, officials said Tuesday.

“They were very sophisticated,” said Diego Rodriguez, special agent in charge of the FBI Dallas Division.

On Tuesday, officials from four federal and local agencies provided more details in the arrests of three men in South Texas in connection with the May 22, 2013, death of reported Mexican drug cartel attorney Juan Jesus Guerrero-Chapa, who was fatally shot near the fountain and gazebo at the upscale outdoor shopping center.

Guerrero and his wife had returned to their Range Rover with packages after shopping when a Toyota Sequoia pulled up behind their SUV. A man got out of the Sequoia and walked up to the passenger seat where Guerrero was sitting and shot him repeatedly with a 9 mm handgun.

A subsequent investigation revealed a tracking device was attached to the Range Rover at the time, presumably unbeknownst to Guerrero and his wife, according to a U.S. District Court criminal complaint released Tuesday.

Two of the suspects, Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Cepeda, 58, and Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Campano, 30, were arrested Friday as they crossed into the United States near McAllen. A third suspect, Jose Luis Cepeda-Cortes, 58, who was living legally in the U.S. on a green card, was arrested at a home in Edinburg.

The three men are charged with a single count each of interstate stalking resulting in death and aiding and abetting, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

“We expect charges may be modified and others added,” John Parker, first assistant U.S. attorney based in Dallas, said during a news conference Tuesday in Southlake. He said other arrests are also possible.

‘A victim of murder’

Numerous press reports have described Guerrero as an attorney for a the Gulf Cartel, which operates on the South Texas-Mexico border. However, authorities on Monday declined to answer any questions about his professional life, or any possible links to organized crime.

“Mr. Chapa was a victim of a murder. What he may or may not have done is beside the point,” said Southlake Police Chief Stephen Mylett.

He added that Guerrero had lived in Southlake two or three years and that police had no issues with him.

“He was a quiet resident,” Mylett said.

Mylett also declined to discuss whether Guerrero’s family continued to receive police protection.

“The family still lives here. They will have to live with this the rest of their lives,” Mylett said. “This man had children. They knew him as ‘Dad.’ ”

Police also sought to assuage concerns that Southlake, a wealthy community with a low crime rate just north of Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, is a dangerous place that could see a repeat of violence with international drug trafficking overtones. The killing was the first homicide in Southlake since 1999, officials said.

“This crime could have occurred anywhere,” Mylett said. “It just so happened to occur in Southlake.”

‘False sense of security’

Authorities said Ledezma-Cepeda and Ledezma-Campano appeared stunned by their arrest when they crossed the Anzalduas International Bridge in Mission, near McAllen, and apparently had no fear of crossing back into the United States.

“I don’t believe they had any idea we were coming,” Mylett said. “I don’t think they knew we had put this team together. I think they had a false sense of security.”

Authorities declined to provide specifics on how they knew the men would be crossing the river, except to say their work was the result of 15 months of intense work involving the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. attorney’s office and Southlake police.

“The arrests today should be a shot across the bow of those who would bring violence and havoc in our communities,” said Daniel Salter, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Dallas Field Division.

Ledezma-Cepeda is the father of Ledezma-Campano and cousin of Cepeda-Cortes, authorities said. Ledezma-Cepeda was charged in a federal indictment returned in July 2014 by a Fort Worth federal grand jury and which was unsealed Monday.

The other two men were charged in a federal complaint filed Friday and unsealed Tuesday.

All three men are Mexican nationals.

The suspects made initial appearances Monday and Tuesday before a U.S. magistrate in McAllen. Federal officials are making plans to have the suspects brought to North Texas by the U.S. Marshals Service.

Watching for 2 years

The suspects traveled from Mexico to Southlake between March 1, 2011, and May 22, 2013, with the intent of killing Guerrero, according to case documents.

Cepeda-Cortes used email, photographs and other surveillance tools to locate Guerrero, the criminal complaint says.

The trio also rented an apartment in Grapevine while tracking Guerrero, and placed surveillance cameras in his Southlake neighborhood, according to the complaint.

The suspects also bought and rented numerous vehicles so they could change cars frequently and avoid detection, the paperwork states. They placed tracking devices on their own vehicles as well as multiple vehicles owned by Guerrero and his relatives, including the Range Rover in which he was killed. An autopsy by the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office found Guerrero had been shot 10 times and had cocaine in his system.

The Sequoia used in the murder was found abandoned in an undisclosed location on June 20. It had been there, without being moved, for about three weeks, according to the criminal complaint.

Soon after the killing, numerous federal officials said the Dallas-Fort Worth area has become a key command and control center for drug and human trafficking, with good highways and rail lines that make it easy to access the rest of the United States.

An estimated $19 billion to $29 billion related to the drug trade travels annually from the U.S. to Mexico. From 2006 to 2013, 9.28 million pounds of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs were seized in Texas, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Also, six of the eight major cartels operate in Texas: Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Beltran Leyva Organization, La Familia Michoacana and the Juarez Cartel, according to the Texas Public Safety Threat Overview.

This report includes information from the Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published September 9, 2014 at 4:36 PM with the headline "Suspects used GPS devices in Southlake shooting ."