MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon — A Los Zetas cartel gunman followed a federal prosecutor for four days before the lawman was murdered earlier this month. Despite his role in the case, the killer was not charged with murder. The victim had previously reported finding a GPS tracker in his vehicle prior.
A law enforcement official with access to the ongoing investigation revealed to Breitbart Texas that earlier this month, municipal police officers in Guadalupe responded to a shooting scene. On location, they found the body of a federal prosecutor with bullet wounds in his face, midsection, and left hand.
The victim has been identified as Jose Luis de Leon, a federal prosecutor assigned to the region. Near his body, authorities found 14 shell casings from a 9mm weapon and five from a .223 firearm. Authorities set off a manhunt after learning the gunman had fled in a Grand Marquis automobile near the Las Aguilas neighborhood.
After the execution, authorities arrested 24-year-old Juan Eduardo Hernandez Martinez near the intersection of Greco and Einstein street with an unspecified amount of drugs on him. Authorities had previously found an identification belonging to Hernandez at the crime scene.
The law enforcement source revealed that while they were trying to connect Hernandez’s role to the murder, they learned that he had recently been released from the Topo Chico state prison where he had been serving time for theft and crimes against the community. The suspect was part of the Five Points group, a Los Zetas offshoot made up of street-level drug dealers and former gang members that operate in the Independence neighborhood, a poor area in Monterrey.
While the organized crime member claimed he received $6,000 pesos or approximately $300 USD for his role in stalking the federal prosecutor, his intake information at the Cadereyta state prison only shows him as having been charged with drug possession. A records search revealed that Hernandez has not been charged with murder.
Fasci Zuazua, Nuevo León’s Public Safety Spokesman, stated that the murder is not tied to internal conflicts within the State Attorney General’s Office. According to Fasci, the slain federal prosecutor had assisted in an administrative inquest tied to the falsifying of case files that led to the firing of 32 prosecutors.
Fasci confirmed that Jose Luis de Leon had reported that in November he found a GPS tracker hidden in his duty vehicle. It remains unclear if the tracker was placed there by law enforcement or by a criminal party.
Another theory tied points to a dispute over a property in the rural area of Linares on the southern part of Nuevo Leon. The victim had previously received threats and saw his property burned down.
The murder of the federal prosecutor took place soon after authorities arrested Eleazar “El Cochi” Palomo Castillo, the regional leader of the Beltran Leyva cartel in Nuevo León. The man known as El Cochi has been singled out as one of the main persons behind the bribery of municipal police officers and ministerial agents in the state.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Tony Aranda, from Monterrey, Nuevo León.
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