After a high-ranking cartel member accused of a murder-for-hire scheme in a wealthy United States suburb was extradited to the U.S. in late February to stand trial, experts on cartel operations warn that ordinary Americans could be caught in the crossfire of Mexican cartel feuds. 

According to the Department of Justice, Jose Rodolfo Villarreal Hernandez, known as “El Gato,” was brought to the U.S. to face justice for his alleged orchestration of a murder that took place in May 2013 in Southlake, an affluent community outside Dallas, Texas. 

Villarreal Hernandez is a Mexican national and former leader of the Beltran-Leyva Organization (BLO) Drug Cartel, whose hired cartel goons allegedly stalked and murdered Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa, an attorney and U.S. government informant who represented the rival Gulf Cartel, authorities said.

Guerrero Chapa was gunned down in a daytime shooting in a busy Southlake shopping center while he and his wife were returning to their vehicle. 

Mexican marines seized an RPG-7 rocket launcher, hand grenades, firearms, cocaine and military uniforms from alleged members of the Zetas drug cartel. (Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images)

Villarreal Hernandez blamed Guerrero Chapa for the death of his father, which was his motive for the alleged murder-for-hire plot, authorities said. 

After spending more than two years on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List, Villarreal Hernandez was captured in 2023 by Mexican authorities in Atizapán de Zaragoza, Mexico. 

He is now in the U.S. to stand trial on charges of interstate stalking and murder-for-hire, both of which carry maximum sentences of life in prison or death.