16-year-old arrested in cartel shooting in El Paso

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL, The Associated Press
3:37 p.m. August 12, 2009

EL PASO, Texas — A 16-year-old boy was arrested Wednesday on a capital murder charge in the shooting death of a Mexican drug cartel official who also was a government informant, authorities said.

The El Paso boy, who was not identified by police because of his age, is the fourth person to be arrested this week in the May 15 slaying of Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana, a Juarez cartel lieutenant who oversaw some of the drug gang's smuggling operations and was cooperating with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement officials.

According to the charging documents, Gonzalez, 37, was hunted by fellow midlevel cartel member and ICE informant Ruben Rodriguez Dorado.

Investigators said Gonzalez was targeted because cartel officials in Mexico believed Gonzalez was an informant or had switched allegiances amid the gang's violent struggle for control of Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grand from El Paso.

El Paso police Chief Greg Allen said Tuesday that Rodriguez hired 18-year-old Army Pfc. Michael Jackson Apodaca and 17-year-old Christopher Duran to carry out the hit.

The men were paid "quite a robust amount of money ... under $10,000, in that area," Allen said.

In charging documents filed against the trio, investigators said Apodaca, an El Paso native who enlisted in the Army last year, told them he accepted money to be the triggerman. Duran admitted being the getaway driver, investigators said.

It was unclear Wednesday what role the 16-year-old had in the killing.
Gonzalez is believed to be the first ranking cartel member killed on American soil.

Gonzalez, who police said was living in El Paso on an ICE-issued visa and knew he was being targeted, was shot eight times in front his house. A witness reported hearing an argument in Spanish just before the shooting, police said.

Rodriguez, Dorado and Apodaca were being held in the El Paso county jail on $1 million bond.

Rodriguez's lawyer, Russell M. Aboud, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday. Online jail and court records do not show if Dorado and Apodaca have hired lawyers. Relatives of Apodaca declined to speak with The Associated Press on Wednesday.

A warrant has been issued for a fifth man, cartel lieutenant Jesus Aguayo Salas, who also is charged with capital murder.

Allen said Aguayo ordered and paid for the killing. Gonzalez was targeted after he vanished from Mexico in the wake of the arrest another cartel leader, Pedro "El Tigre" (The Tiger) Aranas Sanchez, and a raid on a cartel warehouse in Mexico, the chief said.

ICE officials have declined to comment on the case.

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