Mexican drug cartel leader indicted in Southlake assassination of lawyer is in U.S. custody
The United States on Thursday took into custody a Mexican drug cartel leader who authorities allege ordered a 2013 killing in Southlake Town Square near a fountain and gazebo, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Jose Rodolfo Villarreal-Hernandez was in late 2022 or early 2023 arrested in Mexico on a conspiracy to commit murder for hire and interstate stalking indictment filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas.
Villarreal-Hernandez, who is also known as El Gato, had been on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list. Law enforcement authorities allege he is connected to the slaying of Juan Jesus Guerrero-Chapa, the former personal attorney for a cartel leader.
Villarreal-Hernandez was among a group of defendants, many of whom had been sought under previously rebuffed extradition requests, who were taken on the same day into U.S. custody from Mexican custody.
Villarreal-Hernandez has been a high-ranking member of the Beltran-Leyva Organization Drug Cartel, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Guerrero-Chapa was the attorney for Osiel Cardenas, the former head of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel. He also was a U.S. government informant.
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 the couple’s Range Rover. A man got out of the truck, walked up to Guerrero-Chapa as he sat in the passenger seat and repeatedly shot him.
The killing was a hit ordered by Villarreal-Hernandez, who believed Guerrero-Chapa was responsible for the murder of Villarreal-Hernandez’s father, authorities said.
Between March 2011 and May 2013, three men traveled from Mexico to track Guerrero-Chapa in Southlake and elsewhere, authorities said.
The men were acting on orders from Villarreal-Hernandez, authorities allege. After the men found Guerrero-Chapa, Villarreal-Hernandez sent two assassins, identified only as “Clorox” and “Captain,” from Mexico to Southlake to kill him, authorities said.
This story was originally published February 28, 2025 at 12:16 PM.
