Juan Guerrero Chapa and his wife Julia were driving from their Southlake, Texas home towards the upscale shopping district known as Town Square. They were headed to Yumilicious to get some frozen yogurt and to do a little shopping afterward. They pulled their burgundy Range Rover in front of Victoria’s Secret and walked around.
The town of Southlake is one of the richest places in America and is home to a number of wealthy celebrities. Their police department averages one or two arrests a day and most of those are for minor offenses. This particular evening would prove to be a rare and dangerous exception.
New And Unassuming
The 43-year-old Guerrero and his pretty wife cut a handsome picture in town. Him with his ruddy face and slick black hair, crisp blue jeans, and a black polo – Julia with her auburn hair pulled back into a ponytail, black pants, red blouse, and stylish sandals. They were fairly new in town, having moved into their $1 million mansion only two years earlier.
A Gun
This being Texas, it was still sunny at around 6:45 in the evening. As the two headed out of Nine West and back to their Range Rover, they were unaware that both of them were being watched. Julie threw her bag into the driver’s side back seat as Guerrero climbed into the passenger seat. Suddenly, a white Toyota Sequoia pulled up behind them. The man who emerged was holding a 9mm pistol.
Shots Fired
That same gun-toting man had been wearing a hoodie and had a bandanna covering his face. He approached the Guerrero’s Range Rover and began firing into the vehicle. The first two shots came from behind Guerrero and one of them hit the frame of the car’s rear window. Seven more followed, all of them going through the front, passenger-side window.
Mad Scramble
Slivers of glass flew everywhere, Julia was screaming, and blood began to flow. Guerrero, unbuckled as of yet, scrambled into the back seat of the car. Soon, more shots rang out. Multiple shots hit him in the side and back. The shooter fled, jumping back into the Toyota and driving away from the scene.
Crowds Gather
A few moments later and Guerrero stopped moving. He slumped forwards onto the front seats, bleeding profusely. Julia hadn’t been hit, but only because she’d ducked down as soon as the first shots rang out. She began to panic in English and Spanish, begging anyone to come help. Sirens sounded in the distance and a crowd of wealthy shoppers began to gather.
Unsuccessful Resuscitation
The arriving paramedics were able to extract Guerrero and did their best to resuscitate him on the sidewalk, but it was no use. He was rushed to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead at the scene. Though police tried to scan the security cameras for a face, the masked shooter was too quick and covered. The whole encounter took less than ten seconds.
No Place For This
The public murder of Juan Guerrero shocked the residents of Southlake. Not only because of the brazenness of the whole thing but because it was the first murder in the town for more than a decade. That sort of thing didn’t happen in a town like Southlake. It was enough to get the FBI and the Department of Justice involved, although they had other reasons for joining as well.
Deliberate
Within a few days, Guerrero’s death was all over the news. Many of the town residents who had witnessed the crime felt ‘put out’ by the whole affair and all of them wanted the killer or killers to be caught as soon as possible. But something that deliberate and well-orchestrated wasn’t going to be easy to solve, especially considering who Guerrero was.
Guerrero’s Past
The public may not have known a lot about who this Guerrero person was, but the FBI sure did. In his past life, Juan Guerrero worked with one of the most violent criminal organizations in the world. He had been the personal attorney of Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, former leader of the Gulf Cartel.
Charges And Arrest
Cárdenas had been nicknamed El Mata Amigos, which translates to “The Friend Killer.” He was not what one would consider a nice person by any means. The former paramilitary and cartel leader was eventually arrested in a lengthy shootout with the Mexican military and extradited to the U.S. a few years later for a number of drug trafficking, money laundering, and attempted murder charges.
Power Vacuum
With their leader gone, a power vacuum developed inside the Gulf Cartel. Infighting ensued and the famously bloody power struggle that followed affected parts of Northern Mexico for a decade afterward. Thousands died in the mayhem and violence and many of those were innocent bystanders just trying to live their lives.
Plead Out
Two years after he arrived in the US, Cárdenas pleaded guilty and agreed to turn over $50 million in cash, real estate, and aircraft to the U.S. government in exchange for a meager 25-year sentence. And who was tasked with helping the Americans collect the assets and move them over the border? Juan Guerrero, of course.
High-Ranking
Though Guerrero’s involvement wasn’t made public, he was still in grave danger. The Gulf Cartel was fuming about Cárdenas’s deal. Because of his cooperation, the Department of Homeland Security moved Guerrero and his family to North Texas. The whole thing remained hush-hush until Guerrero was publicly murdered in Southlake.
Quiet And Secret
Guerrero had lived a quiet life, but he was a complicated man whose connections put him and his loved ones in constant danger. The cocaine found in his bloodstream at the time of his death indicated that drugs were evidently a coping mechanism. Still, he loved his soccer teams, his cattle ranch, and dining out. He seemed like a normal guy, but the Cartel obviously knew better.
Wanted
A few years prior to the shooting, Guerrero had been at home with Julia and their three kids in Grapevine, Texas when they got an urgent call from his contact at the Dept. of Homeland Security. He was terrified afterward. The Gulf Cartel had found them. So they moved out of Grapevine and headed to South Florida. They laid low for a while before settling in Southlake.
Vegas Bound
Their new house was purchased in cash, it couldn’t be traced, but a distressing call in February of 2013 revealed the truth; they still weren’t safe. Guerrero fled again, moving from hotel to hotel and staying in Vegas with his brother. He was cautious when he returned home and barely left the house, except to get his favorite frozen yogurt.
Being Tracked
When he got shot, FBI agents examined the Range Rover first. A plastic box about the size of a deck of cards was glued to the undercarriage. It was a GPS tracker. The Feds subpoenaed Google and located the Gmail address the tracker had been feeding info too. It led them to a bald, bespectacled, retired Verizon tech named José Cepeda Cortés, or Joe for short.
Links to Cartels
Joe was a legal Mexican immigrant in his late 50’s who seemed mild-mannered. They searched his emails but nothing they saw seemed to link him to any drug cartels. They did, however, find records for car and property rentals in North Texas and South Florida and links to his cousin Jesús “Chuy” Ledezma Cepeda, a private investigator.
Links And Killers
Eventually, the FBI was able to link Chuy and Joe to another man named Jesús Ledezma Campano, also known as Gerardo. He was Chuy’s son. He and his father had crossed back into Mexico, allegedly fleeing from their involvement in the Guerrero murder. Eventually, the combined data was enough to charge and arrest all of them.
Guilty on All Counts
They had all of them been working as hitmen for the cartel, tying up loose ends in the Cárdenas debacle. When the trial was done, the jury deliberated for a few hours before finding both Jesús “Chuy” Ledezma Cepeda and his cousin José “Joe” Cepeda Cortés guilty on all counts. The two older men were sentenced to life. Chuy’s son, Gerardo, was sentenced to twenty years in federal prison.
