A lawyer murdered in Southlake three years ago was the “de facto head” of the Gulf Cartel, one of the largest and most violent drug organizations in Mexico, according to a defense attorney for one of three men charged in the slaying.
The victim, Juan Guerrero Chapa, “ran a large criminal enterprise whose activities included murders, narcotics trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, bribery, money laundering and torture” and had “a large number of enemies,” the suspect’s attorney wrote in a court filing on Monday.
Guerrero, 43, was gunned down in an ambush in May 2013 on the Southlake Town Square.
It has been previously reported that Guerrero was once the personal attorney for former Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas but the allegation that Guerrero ran the cartel himself after Cardenas’ arrest is new.
Ledezma-Cepeda’s son, Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Campano, and the father’s cousin, Jose Luis Cepeda, of Edinberg also were indicted in Guerrero’s murder. The trial is set to start in federal court in Fort Worth on April 25.
The father and son were former police officers in a wealthy suburb of Mexico’s third-largest city, Monterrey.
They are not accused of being the actual triggermen in Southlake.
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Instead, prosecutors charged the trio essentially with being part of a sophisticated intelligence squad, following Guerrero for months with an electronic GPS tracker they had placed on his car and a remote camera they had hidden in his upscale Southlake neighborhood.
The three were charged with stalking and conspiracy to commit murder.
In court filings, prosecutors have linked the three to a dozen other drug-related murders in Mexico.
At the time of Guerrero’s murder, Southlake police described it as a professional hit. He was shot once in the chest and nine times in the back in just six seconds as he was getting in his Range Rover after shopping with his wife. She was not injured.
The men who shot Guerrero and organized the ambush have not been arrested and are believed to be in Mexico.
Records show Guerrero was not licensed to practice law in Texas and had no apparent job.
He bought a $1.2 million house in Southlake under an assumed name in July 2011.
Investigating Guerrero’s murder became a high priority for the FBI and other agencies.
VICTIM WAS INFORMANT
Adding a twist to the case, Guerrero was an informant for Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, at the time of his murder, NBC 5 has reported.
If true, the allegation about Guerrero heading a major cartel raises questions about his relationship with the U.S. government and whether agents turned a blind eye to his illegal activities in exchange for information.
Usually law enforcement officers use lower-level informants to work their way up an organization, not to protect the top boss.
Fred Burton, vice president for intelligence for the Austin-based global security company Stratfor, said it would not be surprising that Guerrero held a senior position with the drug-trafficking organization.
“In my view, the scope and sophistication of the narco hit in Southlake adds credence to the defense allegations,” he said.
After his murder, police and federal agents would say only that Guerrero was a Mexican citizen who had been living legally in Southlake.
THE CARTELS
The Gulf Cartel is one of Mexico’s largest, most violent and most sophisticated cartels.
Cardenas was arrested in Mexico in 2003 after a shootout with the Mexican military.
He was widely believed to have continued running the cartel from inside a Mexican prison.
In 2007, he was extradited to Houston, where, in an extraordinary plea deal in 2010, he was sentenced to just 25 years in prison in exchange for his cooperation.
It is unclear when Guerrero became a U.S. informant or what information he may have provided to American investigators.
Prosecutors have not publicly said which cartel may have wanted Guerrero dead or why.
Guerrero’s enemies included members of the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas, Ledezma-Cepeda’s attorneys said in Monday’s filing. The Zetas were once part of the Gulf Cartel but split off to become their own group in 2010.
A third organization, the Beltran-Leyva cartel, is said to control the Monterrey suburb where the Ledezmas are from.
DISPUTE OVER AUTOPSY RESULTS
The allegations about Guerrero heading the Gulf Cartel came in two defense attorney’s response to a prosecutor’s motion to suppress evidence that Guerrero’s autopsy showed he had cocaine in his system at the time of his death.
Prosecutors argued the autopsy results are not relevant to the murder.
But the two lawyers for Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Cepeda, Wes Ball and Warren St. John, argued the fact Guerrero had used cocaine shows he had “continued his association” with criminal groups.
U.S. District Judge Terry Means, who is presiding over the case, has not ruled whether the autopsy should be admitted.
STRICT TRIAL RULES
Judge Means has issued a strict set of trial instructions for lawyers.
Prosecutors had asked for 60 hours to present their case.
The judge ordered them to do it in 35 hours, including the opening statement and cross-examination.
Defense attorneys will get 25 hours.
The judge also ordered that spectators can enter the courtroom “only before the call to order and during recesses.”
Anyone who leaves cannot re-enter until the next break, the judge wrote.
