Mexican Police Arrest Cartel Boss Charged with Murder-for-Hire of Lawyer in Texas

The FBI logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, D.C., on July 5, 2016. (Yuri Gripas/AFP/Getty Images)

A Mexican cartel boss wanted for the murder of a lawyer in Texas, who was gunned down in broad daylight in a busy shopping center nearly a decade ago, was captured over the weekend.

On Saturday, José Rodolfo Villareal-Hernández, also known as “El Gato,” was arrested by authorities in Atizapán de Zaragoza, Mexico, the FBI Dallas Field Office announced in a press release.

Villareal-Hernández was one of the FBI’s most wanted men, with a $1 million U.S. bounty on his head. He was wanted by the feds for ordering the murder of 43-year-old Juan Jesús Guerrero Chapa in 2013 at Southlake Town Square, in Southlake, Texas, as reported by multiple news outlets at the time.

Guerrero Chapa was a personal lawyer who represented Gulf cartel boss Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States, The Dallas Morning News reported. He also was a U.S. government informant.

Villareal-Hernández is charged with interstate stalking and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, according to the unsealed indictment by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas. Three other men were prosecuted and sentenced in 2016 for their connections in the case.

Murdered in Broad Daylight

Guerrero Chapa and his wife were out shopping at the time of the incident. After stopping at a frozen yogurt shop at about 6:45 p.m., the couple climbed into their Range Rover when a vehicle pulled up behind them and stopped.

A man wearing a hooded shirt and a covering over his nose and mouth got out of the vehicle and walked up to Guerrero Chapa’s SUV and began firing multiple shots into the closed window with a 9mm pistol. The victim died at the scene.

The bloody slaying shook the affluent community that sits about 25 miles northeast of Fort Worth. It was the first homicide recorded in more than a decade.

“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,” FBI Dallas Acting Special Agent in Charge James Dwyer said in the release.

Detectives discovered a GPS tracking device on Guerrero Chapa’s vehicle. The suspect is believed to have had a personal grudge against Guerrero Chapa.

“The investigation, led by the FBI’s Dallas Field Office, revealed the victim was stalked by a group of individuals beginning in March 2011,” the release said. “The investigation further determined this same group allegedly committed murder-for-hire on May 22, 2013, at the direction of Villareal-Hernandez, who allegedly holds an active leadership position in the Beltran Leyva drug-trafficking organization.”

Villareal-Hernández was named to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List in October 2020. He is being held in Mexico pending extradition to the United States, the release said.