The drug cartel boss who ordered the murder of an attorney in Southlake three years ago once bragged that he was protected by the Mexican president, the U.S. government’s star witness testified in a federal trial in Fort Worth on Friday.
The witness also said that soon after his arrest in 2014, he offered to give information about people that would be of interest to the CIA and the Mexican government.
Jesus Gerardo Ledezma Campano testified that a leader for the Beltran Leyva cartel known as “El Gato” ordered a hit squad to kill Juan Guerrero Chapa, who was once the personal attorney for the leader of the Gulf Cartel, Osiel Cardenas.
Guerrero, 43, was gunned down on the Southlake Town Square in May 2013.
Campano pleaded guilty in a deal with federal prosecutors, admitting he and two other family members stalked Guerrero for months using remote cameras and GPS trackers. In exchange, prosecutors dropped a charge of conspiracy to commit murder for hire.
The gunmen and “El Gato,” whose name is Rodolfo Villareal Hernandez, have never been arrested. Villareal is purported to be the Beltran-Leyva boss in San Pedro Garza, a wealthy suburb of Monterrey.
Ledezma Campano, 32, testified against his father, Jesus Gerardo Ledezma Cepeda and his father’s uncle, Jose Luis Cepeda.
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He appeared in an orange jail outfit and spoke in almost perfect English.
Cepeda’s attorney, Robert Rogers of Dallas, asked Ledezma Campano whether “El Gato” had the protection of the president of Mexico.
“At some point he said that,” Ledezma Campano answered.
“Did you believe him?” the lawyer asked.
“I can tell, sir,” the witness answered.
The defendant did not say if he was referring to President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose term began in 2012, or a previous president.
Ledezma Campano also said he was cooperating in ongoing investigations but did not elaborate after federal prosecutors objected.
Ledezma Campano, a former police officer in San Pedro Garza, faces 25 years to life but his sentence could be reduced if he gives “substantial cooperation” in other cases.
He said he was concerned about the safety of his family in Mexico and that they are in hiding.
“They came here to the U.S. but they have to keep changing the places they live,” he said, wiping tears from his eyes. “They are constantly running.”
Prosecutors have implicated Ledezma Campano and his father in 12 other murders in the Monterrey area.
Defense attorneys have said Guerrero, who was shot once in the chest and nine times in the back, was the "de facto" leader of the Gulf Cartel after Cardenas' arrest.
Guerrero also was a U.S. government informant.
Cardenas is on the defense witness list but it is not clear if he will testify in the trial, which is expected to last about three weeks.
Ledezma Campano testified that El Gato and Guerrero had had a rivalry since they were children.
El Gato wanted Guerrero dead for killing his father years earlier, Ledezma Campano said.
