A federal court in El Paso convicted two Mexican gunmen for shooting a group of U.S. Consulate workers in Ciudad Juarez in 2010. The gunmen are part of the Barrio Azteca gang which, at the time, was working with the Juarez Cartel to fight against the Sinaloa Cartel for control of the lucrative border city.
This week, jurors in an El Paso federal court finished deliberations in the case against 43-year-old Jose Guadalupe “El Zorro” Diaz Diaz, and 54-year-old Martin Artin “El Popeye” Perez Marrufo. According to information released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, the trial before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone lasted 13 days. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury found the two men guilty of all charges. These charges included various conspiracies, racketeering, narcotics trafficking, narcotics importation, money laundering, and murder in a foreign country, in addition to several other federal charges.
“Although 12 years have passed since these senseless murders, our office has only strengthened its resolve to seek justice for victims of cartel violence,” said U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Ashley C. Hoff in a prepared statement. “These guilty verdicts demonstrate the diligent pursuit of our prosecutors and our commitment to protecting communities from ruthless brutality.”
According to prosecutors, on March 13, 2010, El Zorro and El Popeye were part of a team of hitmen that attacked the vehicles driven by a group of U.S. consulate employees who were leaving a children’s party. During the attack, the gunmen killed U.S. Consulate employee Leslie Enriquez; her husband, Arthur Redelfs; and Jorge Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of another U.S. Consulate employee. The gunmen mistook the consular employees for rivals and shot them several times. Prosecutors claimed that Diaz killed Enriquez and Redelfs, while Marrufo killed Ceniceros.
Since the murder, authorities charged 35 men in connection with the case. All have been arrested and 28 have been convicted, the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed. Diaz and Marrufo were arrested in Mexico and extradited to the U.S. in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.