El Gato planned 2013 Southlake murder because of grudge against cartel attorney, FBI says
A Mexican drug cartel leader was responsible for stalking and orchestrating the murder-for-hire of a cartel attorney in 2013 in Southlake Town Square, according to FBI officials and federal court documents.
Jose Rodolfo Villarreal-Hernandez, also known as El Gato, was arrested on Saturday in Mexico after being on the run for years.
“His arrest is the next step in achieving justice for the victim’s family as well as the citizens of Southlake who were shocked by the brutal murder that occurred in their city,” said FBI Dallas Acting Special Agent in Charge James Dwyer in a news release.
Villarreal-Hernandez, who allegedly holds an active leadership position in the Beltran Leyva drug-trafficking organization, was taken into custody Saturday in Atizapán de Zaragoza, Mexico, by SEMAR (Secretaría de Marina) and agents from the Agencia de Investigación Criminal (Criminal Investigative Agency) of the Fiscalía General de la República with support from the Coordinación Nacional Antisecuestro.
He is being held in Mexico pending extradition to the United States.
El Gato is charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy to commit murder for hire and interstate stalking.
Villarreal-Hernandez, who had been on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list, is suspected of being connected to the slaying of Juan Jesus Guerrero-Chapa, the former personal attorney for a cartel leader
Guerrero-Chapa was the attorney for Osiel Cardenas, the former head of Mexico’s notorious Gulf Cartel. He also was a U.S. government informant.
Six people have been arrested in the case, but the assassins remain on the run, according to U.S. authorities.
Authorities said the killing was a hit ordered by El Gato, who supposedly believed Guerrero-Chapa was responsible for his father’s murder.
Officials say between March 2011 and May 2013, three men traveled from Mexico to Southlake and elsewhere, tracking Guerrero-Chapa.
Records show the men were acting on orders from Villarreal-Hernandez. After the men located Guerrero-Chapa, Villarreal-Hernandez sent two assassins — identified only as “Clorox” and “Captain” — from Mexico to Southlake to kill him, authorities said.
Guerrero-Chapa had gone out for ice cream with his wife at Southlake Town Square on May 22, 2013, when a Toyota Sequoia pulled up behind their Range Rover. A man got out of the truck, walked up to him as he sat in the passenger seat, and repeatedly shot him.
He died near the fountain and gazebo.
His wife, Julia Tijerina de la Garza, testified in court nearly three years later that Guerrero-Chapa had lived in fear for more than two years, hiding his family in a gated community and often staying at nearby hotels.
He’d gotten two phone calls, one in spring of 2011 and another in February 2013, informing him that “they had found him, they knew where he lived and they wanted to kill him,” Tijerina testified.
The three men who tracked the victim have been sentenced: Jose Luis Cepeda-Cortes, of Mexico; his cousin Jesus “Chuy” Gerardo Ledezma-Cepeda; and Ledezma-Cepeda’s son, Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Campano.
A drug dealer, Luis Lauro Ramirez Bautista, suspected of helping finance the search, was apprehended in June 2017 by Mexican federal officers, according to reporting by the Dallas Morning News. He died in custody, federal authorities said.
Ramon Villarreal, also accused of being linked to the 2013 Southlake killing, was arrested in 2018 without incident in Monterrey in northern Mexico, according to a news release from the Procuraduria General De La Republica, the Mexican federal law enforcement agency.
Villarreal-Hernandez has been a high-ranking member of the Beltran-Leyva Organization (BLO) Drug Cartel, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He oversaw an organization responsible for importing cocaine and marijuana into the United States, as well as committing violent acts in Mexico and the U.S. to maintain his organization’s power and status, the Justice Department says.
Villarreal-Hernandez procured the commission of the Southlake killing by payment or a promise of a payment, according to federal court records. He led the planning for the shooting death, authorities said.
Villarreal-Hernandez was the 524th person to be placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, which was established in 1950.
This report includes material from the Star-Telegram’s archives.
This story was originally published January 10, 2023 at 10:51 AM.
