Jose Rodolfo Villareal-Hernandez, known as “El Gato,” was one of 29 cartel figures sent to the U.S. on criminal charges this week, federal officials announced.
Jose Rodolfo Villareal-Hernandez, known as “El Gato,” was one of 29 cartel figures sent to the U.S. on criminal charges this week, federal officials announced.
Jose Rodolfo Villareal-Hernandez, known as “El Gato,” was one of 29 cartel figures sent to the U.S. on criminal charges this week, federal officials announced.
SOUTHLAKE, Texas — The lawyer sat slumped and bloodied in the passenger seat of a maroon Range Rover, on a late spring night at Southlake Town Square. Juan Jesus Guerrero-Chapa had just finished shopping with his wife when a shooter in a white Toyota Sequoia drove up to the couple, stepped out and gunned him down.
Days later, the man accused of ordering the execution-style killing celebrated with Michelob beer and a hunting trip, a defendant in the case would later testify.
Now, nearly a dozen years later, that man is in custody on U.S. soil.
Jose Rodolfo Villareal-Hernandez, known as “El Gato,” was one of 29 cartel figures sent to the U.S. on criminal charges this week, federal officials announced.
According to the Department of Justice, Villareal-Hernandez is being arraigned in the Northern District of Texas, which has investigated and prosecuted the Guerrero-Chapa murder since it happened on May 22, 2013. Villareal-Hernandez, or El Gato, faces charges of interstate stalking and conspiracy to commit murder for hire, according to a federal indictment.
The case already resulted in three convictions going back to 2016, when a trio of suspects faced stalking charges in the case. But the alleged shooter and getaway driver — later referenced at trial as “Clorox” and “Captain” — have never been arrested, and Villareal-Hernandez wasn’t taken into custody until 2023 in Mexico.
Villareal-Hernandez’s extradition to the U.S. was part of what the Associated Press described as an “unprecedented show of security cooperation” between the U.S. and Mexico, as President Trump threatens 25% tariffs that could start next week. The key cartel figure extradited this week was Rafael Caro Quintero, who was behind the killing of U.S. DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985, officials said.
But Villareal-Hernandez, a reported leader in the Beltran Lleyva cartel, was the headliner in North Texas.
“El Gato,” authorities have said, was the cartel leader behind one of the most shocking crimes in recent North Texas history.
Guerrero-Chapa, who was said to be a lawyer for the Gulf cartel, was murdered in the parking lot of an upscale shopping center, in an upscale suburb. Not only was it the first murder in Southlake in 14 years — and only the third in the previous 20 — it was a rare episode of high-profile, cartel-connected violence on U.S. soil.
The gunman got away, but investigators later arrested three men who were accused of stalking Guerrero-Chapa. Prosecutors alleged that Mexican private investigator Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Cepeda, his son Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Campano, and his cousin, Jose Luis Cepeda-Cortes, tracked Guerrero-Chapa like “big-game hunting guides,” according to Fort Worth Star-Telegram archive coverage of the trial, which began in April 2016.
The son, Ledezma-Campano, who pleaded guilty before the trial began, testified that they tracked Guerrero-Chapa for El Gato, saying the Beltran Lleyva cartel “plaza boss” wanted Guerrero-Chapa dead. El Gato, according to the testimony, believed that Guerrero-Chapa was responsible for the death of his father. El Gato wanted the men to track the “snitch,” Ledezma-Campano testified, according to the Star-Telegram coverage.
After Guerrero-Chapa was killed, the men who tracked him went to Mexico, where El Gato wanted to celebrate, according to Ledezma-Campano. He testified that his father told him to bring as many beers to Mexico as border officers would allow.
El Gato also hosted a lengthy hunting trip, according to the trial testimony, and bought Ledezma-Cepeda, the father defendant in the case, a BMW.
“He said thanks, and now his dad can rest in peace,” Ledezma-Campano testified at trial, according to the Star-Telegram’s coverage.
Attorneys for the men who tracked Guerrero-Chapa argued that El Gato forced them to stalk the attorney, initially summoning Ledezma-Cepeda “to a bloodstained tire shop” in Monterrey. But a federal jury found Ledezma-Cepeda and his cousin, Cepeda-Cortes, guilty, and both men were sentenced to life in prison.
Now, the man accused of directing the operation will also face charges in a U.S. court.
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