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  1. #1
    Senior Member lorrie's Avatar
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    Mexican cartel team used elaborate tactics to hunt murdered rival in Texas (update)

    Mexican cartel team used elaborate tactics to hunt
    murdered rival in Texas


    Gulf cartel men stalked Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa for two years, searching across southern US and deploying tracking devices to
    find him, court was told

    Tom Dart in Fort Worth
    Tuesday 26 April 2016 17.35 EDT



    The victim was the personal lawyer of Osiel Cardenas-Guillen, the former head of the Gulf cartel based in
    Mexico. Photograph: Pat Sullivan/AP


    A surveillance team working for a revenge-fuelled Mexican drug cartel boss hunted a Texas-based rival in a sophisticated tracking operation and enabled his murder, a court was told on Tuesday.
    Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa was the personal attorney of Osiel Cardenas Guillen, the former head of the Gulf cartel. Guerrero Chapa was shot dead on the evening of 22 May 2013, as he shopped with his wife in a smart open-air precinct near Dallas-Fort Worth international airport.

    It was the swift and bloody climax to a painstaking search for the Mexican citizen, who lived with his family in a mansion bought under an alias in the wealthy enclave of Southlake. The hunt began in 2011, assistant US attorney Joshua Burgess said in a federal courtroom in downtown Fort Worth during opening statements in the trial of two men accused of involvement in the killing.


    Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa, a personal lawyer for Gulf cartel boss Osiel Cardenas. Photograph: Handout

    Three relatives looked for Guerrero Chapa in the south Texas borderlands, then the Dallas region, Burgess said. When they failed to locate him, the pursuit moved to south Florida, where the victim’s brother lived, and they tried to rent a house in his gated community to get close to him.

    Ultimately, the prosecution contends, the trackers returned to the Dallas area and found Guerrero Chapa’s sister-in-law. They attached a GPS tracking device to her car and located the attorney when she made several trips to his home. Then they planted devices on his vehicles and hid a game camera in his front yard that was spray-painted to blend in with its surroundings. “They worked in concert as hunting guides. Their prey was Mr Chapa,” Burgess said.

    Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Cepeda and his cousin, Jose Luis Cepeda-Cortes, a legal US resident, are charged with interstate stalking resulting in death and conspiracy to commit murder for hire. Cepeda-Cortes is also accused of attempting to destroy evidence. They pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.

    Burgess said that Ledezma-Cepeda’s son, Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Campano, will testify for the prosecution. He has pleaded guilty to a stalking charge. All three were arrested in September 2014 – Ledezma-Cepeda and his son had tried to enter the US by crossing a border bridge in the Rio Grande Valley.

    As Guerrero Chapa’s wife stowed a bag in the back of their Range Rover, a white Toyota Sequoia SUV drove up behind them and a masked man got out and walked to the passenger side of the vehicle, firing multiple shots through a closed window with a 9mm handgun.

    Their target was hit in his back and left side as he twisted his body and tried to escape by crawling to the rear of the car. The Sequoia swiftly drove off, and the shooter and driver are thought to be still at large.

    The trial is taking place amid tight security at the courthouse in downtown Fort Worth. Ledezma-Cepeda occasionally rubbed his forehead during proceedings on Tuesday. He and Cepeda-Cortes were impassive as the jury was played cellphone video footage of the immediate aftermath of the shooting, taken by a shopper, which included a view of the bullet-ridden vehicle and Guerrero Chapa’s wife screaming, though she was unhurt.

    Burgess said that Ledezma-Cepeda was parked on the other side of a pond from where the murder took place, affording him a direct view of the shooting; his son was in a coffee shop.

    Defence lawyers claimed in pre-trial court documents that Guerrero Chapa became the de facto leader of the Gulf cartel after Cardenas Guillen’s arrest in 2003. He was extradited to the US in 2007 and sentenced to 25 years in federal prison in 2010. He is expected to testify for the defence during this trial. Guerrero Chapa lived legally in the US and was an informant for American authorities.

    Wes Ball, one of Ledezma-Cepeda’s attorneys, told jurors that a Mexico-based man known as El Gato (“The Cat”), a high-ranking member of a different cartel, held Guerrero Chapa responsible for the death of his father and wanted payback. Ball said that Los Zetas, the former paramilitary wing of the Gulf cartel, were also angry with the victim because of his cooperation with US law enforcement.

    Ball described his client, a former police officer in Monterrey, Mexico, as a private investigator whose typical line of work was following cheating spouses. But El Gato called him to a meeting in an auto repair shop and ordered him to track Guerrero Chapa, Ball said, adding: “This is not a job offer with a right of refusal … Mr Ledezma did what he was told and he had no choice.”

    Robert Rogers, representing Cepeda-Cortes, portrayed the defendant as an unwitting participant: a man with reasonable computer skills who lived a quiet life in south Texas and simply wanted to help out his cousin, without realising the consequences.

    Cepeda-Cortes was enticed by the offer of free trips to Miami and Dallas, Rogers said, and in 2012, “in the heart of this conspiracy”, even travelled to Los Angeles to be on a Hispanic equivalent of the television show America’s Got Talent. Once he saw that Guerrero Chapa was dead, Rogers said, his client tried to wipe digital footprints of his activities out of fear.

    The trial is expected to last about four weeks.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...guerrero-chapa










    Last edited by Jean; 12-03-2016 at 11:27 PM.

  2. #2
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    Mexican man sentenced to 2 life sentences for his role in North Texas murder in May 2

    Mexican man sentenced to 2 life sentences for his role in North Texas murder in May 2013

    December 2, 2016

    FORT WORTH, Texas — One of the Mexican men convicted for his role in the May 2013 murder of a man in North Texas was sentenced Thursday to two life terms plus 20 years in federal prison.

    This sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas. This investigation was led by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance from the following agencies: Southlake Police Department; US. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Texas Department of Public Safety; Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office; Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office; Fort Worth Police Department; and Grapevine Police Department.

    Jose Luis Cepeda Cortes, 60, was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means to two life sentences plus 240 months, which will run concurrently. Cepeda Cortes was convicted at trial in May 2016 on one count of interstate stalking, one count of conspiracy to commit murder for hire and one count of tampering with documents or proceedings.

    Co-defendant Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Cepeda, aka “Chuy” and “Juan Ramos,” 60, also from Mexico, was also convicted at trial in May 2016 on one count of interstate stalking and one count of conspiracy to commit murder for hire. Each offense carries a maximum statutory penalty of life in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 6.

    Ledezma-Cepeda’s son, Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Campano, 33, was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means to 20 years in federal prison on Aug.18, 2016. Ledezma-Campano pleaded guilty in March 2016 to one count of interstate stalking and testified for the government at trial.

    On May 22, 2013, at 6:47 p.m., Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa was ambushed and shot multiple times with a 9mm pistol while seated in his Range Rover that was parked at Southlake Town Square in Southlake, Texas. A Toyota Sequoia pulled up behind the Range Rover, a gunman got out of that vehicle, walked up to the Range Rover, and fired several times through the window at Guerrero Chapa, who died at the scene. Nearby, Guerrero Chapa’s wife was not harmed.

    According to evidence presented at trial and documents filed in the case, from about March 1, 2011, until May 22, 2013, the three defendants traveled in interstate and foreign commerce from Mexico to Southlake, and elsewhere, with the intent to kill, injure, harass and intimidate Guerrero Chapa, and as a result of that travel, Guerrero Chapa was killed. In addition, from about May 23, 2013, until Sept. 5, 2014, Cepeda-Cortes took steps to destroy evidence on his computer related to this investigation.

    The defendants were acting on orders from a man in Mexico, Rodolfo Villarreal Hernandez, aka “El Gato,” or “the Cat,” who wanted Guerrero Chapa killed as revenge for his father’s murder. Over the course of the conspiracy, Ledezma-Campano and Ledezma-Cortes received money from Ledezma-Cepeda to pay for their expenses. Ledezma-Cepeda was paid by “El Gato.”

    Ledezma-Cepeda asked his son, Ledezma-Campano, to assist in the search. Ledezma-Campano used his skill with electronic devices to assist in the search, and he created email accounts for Ledezma-Cepeda and “El Gato” to communicate with each other.

    The defendants exchanged information via email to locate Guerrero Chapa – exchanging personal information about Guerrero Chapa and his family as well as information regarding vehicles associated with them and photographs of the Guerrero Chapa residence in Southlake.

    The defendants used various means to locate and track Guerrero Chapa and members of his family. Cepeda-Cortes purchased surveillance cameras that were placed in various locations in Guerrero Chapa’s neighborhood. In addition, while in the area, the defendants purchased and rented several vehicles that allowed them to frequently change vehicles and use non-descript rental vehicles to avoid detection by Guerrero Chapa and his family. They placed automobile tracking devices not only on their own vehicles, but on vehicles owned and operated by Guerrero Chapa and his relatives, including the Range Rover Guerrero Chapa was in when he was murdered.

    After the defendants located Guerrero Chapa, “El Gato” sent two assassins from Mexico to Southlake to kill him. Ledezma-Campano met the two, whom he identified as “Clorox” and “Captain,” and concluded they were sent to kill Guerrero Chapa. One of the men was, in fact, the gunman who killed the victim on May 22, 2013, and the other drove the Toyota Sequoia.

    On the day of the murder, Ledezma-Campano and Ledezma-Cepeda followed the victim around Southlake, and that afternoon, while the victim’s Range Rover was parked in a Walmart parking lot, Ledezma-Campano and Ledezma-Cepeda switched the tracking device on the Range Rover.

    At about 6 p.m. on May 22, 2013, Guerrero Chapa and his wife drove to Southlake Town Square. Ledezma-Campano and Ledezma-Cepeda, who had been parked near Guerrero Chapa’s home, followed them. Guerrero Chapa parked in his regular parking spot near a yogurt store, and Ledezma-Campano and Ledezma-Cepeda parked directly across from them and used binoculars to watch them.

    As they waited, Ledezma-Cepeda was in regular contact, via Blackberry Messenger, with “El Gato.” Ledezma-Campano saw “Clorox” and “Captain” drive by in a Toyota Sequoia. Ledezma-Campano went into a coffee shop in the Town Square and while inside he heard a commotion outside. He returned to Ledezma-Cepeda who told him “they shot him.”

    Ledezma-Campano and Ledezma-Cepeda waited several minutes as law enforcement responded before leaving the scene. “El Gato” told both of them to stop using the tracking device they carried in their vehicle. The next morning, they returned the rental car and drove directly into Mexico, along the way destroying the phones they had used.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua Burgess and Aisha Saleem, Northern District of Texas, are prosecuting this case.

    https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/me...urder-may-2013
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