After almost three years, three cartel members will be going to trial this month on stalking and conspiracy to commit murder for hire charges in connection with a Mexican cartel assassination in the Dallas Suburb of Southlake.
As Breitbart Texas previously reported, on September 2014, U.S. federal authorities arrested Jesus Gerardo “El Chuy” Ledezma Cepeda, his son Jesus Gerardo Ledezma Campano and Jose Luis Cepeda Cortez in connection with the 2013 murder of Mexican attorney Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa.
The trio are set to go to trial on April 25 in federal court where if convicted they face a possible sentence of life-in prison.
The both Ledezmas had been police officers in the city of San Pedro, Nuevo Leon in Mexico before their arrest in the Texas. Sources consulted by Breitbart Texas at the time of the Ledezma’s arrest confirmed that San Pedro had historically been under the control of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel.
Guerrero Chapa had been the attorney for Mexican drug lord Osiel Cardenas Guillen. He had been the supreme leader of the Gulf Cartel in Mexico and was also the founder of Los Zetas. They had been his personal bodyguards. The Mexican attorney had moved to Dallas where according to court documents the Ledezmas carried out an intricate surveillance and spying operation with the use of cameras, GPS equipment and other devices to track their prey.
Details about the actual trigger-man have not been publicly released but on May 22, 2013, a lone gunman went up to Guerrero Chapa and fired as many as 10 rounds from a 9mm weapon before fleeing. The victim was coming out of a Victoria’s Secret store with his wife; she was not hurt.
At the time of the murders, local and state authorities did not mention the word “cartel” or “cartel assassination” claiming that it was too early in the investigation to make that assertion. The mention of cartels was only made by documents filed in federal court by prosecutors.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
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