A fugitive on the FBI’s most wanted list who is being sought for his alleged involvement in a murder plot was caught in Mexico Saturday, according to reports.
Jose Rodolfo Villarreal-Hernandez was arrested in Mexico City south of the border Saturday, according to Mexican prosecutors. Also known as “El Gato,” Villarreal-Hernandez is wanted for his alleged involvement in the murder-for-hire plot of a 43-year-old Texas man from May 2013, according to US federal authorities.
Univision Dallas-Forth Worth reported that Villarreal-Hernandez was taken into custody in an operation that included the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) and other law enforcement agencies in Mexico.
He allegedly has held a leadership position in the Beltran Leyva drug-tracking ring in Mexico, according to the FBI. The federal agency was offering $1 million reward for information that led to the capture of one of the bureau’s top ten most wanted fugitives.
Villarreal-Hernandez was indicted on federal charges in Fort Worth after he was suspected of signing off on the slaying of lawyer Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa, who was shot dead while shopping with his wife, according to NBC 5 DFW.
Two Mexican assassins reportedly drove up and shot Guerrero multiple times. His wife was not injured.
A federal arrest warrant for interstate stalking and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire connected to Villarreal-Hernandez was granted by a judge in 2018, the FBI said.
The Mexican national was on the FBI’s top ten most wanted list.fbi.gov
The FBI believes a personal grudge led Villarreal-Hernandez to want the victim dead.
“The fact that Villarreal-Hernandez was willing to send people to the United States to track someone within the United States and then execute that person in a neighborhood in Texas—we need to set the example that this will not be tolerated,” said Special Agent Gary Koenig in a press release in 2020 announcing Villarreal-Hernandez’s addition to the top ten most wanted list.
