Man arrested in Mexico for 2013 Southlake murder affiliated with cartel activity extradited to US, officials say​on March 1, 2025 at 12:09 am

SOUTHLAKE, Texas — Mexico has sent 29 cartel figures to the U.S. on various criminal charges, including one suspect accused of hiring a group to kill a man in Southlake in 2013, officials say. 

Jose Rodolfo Villarreal-Hernandez, also known as “El Gato,” was arrested in 2023 in Mexico, 10 years after the shooting death. The FBI said Villarreal-Hernandez had the victim, Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa, stalked. As he and his wife were leaving the Southlake Town Center on May 22, 2013, a car drove up alongside his, and its passengers shot him.

Villarreal-Hernandez is charged with interstate stalking and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. The FBI claims he holds a leadership position in the Beltran Leyva drug cartel.

“After more than a decade, Mr. Villarreal Hernandez will have to answer for his alleged crimes in an American courtroom,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham in a statement. “Since the victim was gunned down in a public parking lot in 2013, law enforcement’s commitment to this case has never wavered. I extend my sincere thanks to the federal, state, local, and international partners who have pulled together to ensure this defendant will be brought to justice.”

According to the Department of Justice, Villarreal-Hernandez is being arraigned in the Northern District of Texas. If convicted, he faces a maximum punishment of a life sentence or death.

“As President Trump has made clear, cartels are terrorist groups, and this Department of Justice is devoted to destroying cartels and transnational gangs,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement about the extraditions. “We will prosecute these criminals to the fullest extent of the law in honor of the brave law enforcement agents who have dedicated their careers — and in some cases, given their lives — to protect innocent people from the scourge of violent cartels. We will not rest until we secure justice for the American people.”

Bondi further pledged to prosecute all cartel bosses “to the fullest extent of the law in honor of the brave law enforcement agents who have dedicated their careers — and in some cases, given their lives — to protect innocent people from the scourge of violent cartels.”

Officials say Villarreal-Hernandez held a grudge against Guerrero and used a group to stalk the man as early as March 2011. The FBI also found that the same group allegedly committed the murder-for-hire of the man in 2013 under orders from Villarreal-Hernandez. 

“FBI Dallas and the Southlake Police Department have been determined to bring this individual to justice since he orchestrated a brutal murder in one of the many communities we serve in North Texas,” said R. Joseph Rothrock, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Dallas Field Office in a statement. “We would like to thank the United States Marshals Service for ensuring that Villarreal-Hernandez arrived safely and is now in federal custody on U.S. soil.”

Guerrero acted as the “de facto head” of a Mexican drug cartel, running “a large criminal enterprise,” attorneys for one of the men charged in Guerrero’s death allege in a court filing.

Prosecutors revealed in court filings that Guerrero had been in fear “because he had been found by people who wanted to kill him.” The conspirators, prosecutors allege, tried early in their search to get the U.S. government to deport Guerrero.

Selena Gomez partnered with Univision in 2021 to produce a true crime documentary about the murder. The Spanish-language series, titled Mi Vecino, El Cartel (The Cartel Among Us, premiered in 2022.