EL PASO - A Mexican Drug Cartel member arrested by El Paso police last Monday is accused of hiring a U.S. Army soldier and two juveniles and another man to kill Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana a Mexican drug cartel lieutenant who was cooperating with U.S. authorities was himself a government informant.
According to court documents Ruben Rodriguez Dorado hired Pfc. Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18, and Christopher Duran, 17, and a un-named 16 year old El Paso juvenile, to assassinate El Paso resident and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement informant Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana.
Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana
The three were arrested Monday and the 16 year old was arrested Wednesday and charged with capital murder in the May 15 slaying of Gonzalez, who was shot eight times outside his upper scale El Paso home with in ear shot of El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen's own home .
The chief said he was working in his back yard when he heard multiple gun shoots. Investigators said Aguayo, also a ranking cartel official in Mexico, ordered and paid for the hit.
Rodriguez, like Gonzalez, was an informant working with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement service, El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said.
Apodaca allegedly was the trigger man and is based at Fort Bliss in El Paso where he is a member of the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade and performs the duties of a Patriot launcher crew member.
The U.S. Border Fire Report (USBFR) has learned that a warrant has been issued for a fourth man, 33-year-old Jesus Aguayo Salas, on a capital murder charge. The U.S. Border Fire Report has been told by authorities that Salas is believed in Mexico.
Gonzalez was living in El Paso on a visa given to him by ICE, Allen said. He is believed to be the first ranking cartel member killed in the U.S. Anyone with information on Aguayo Salas' whereabouts is asked to call police at (915) 832-4400 or 911.
Allen had said many times in the past he believed that the violence in Mexico would not spill over into his city.
After the hit the police chief was surprised that the feds had not informed his department that the federal government had not only an active Mexican Drug Cartel member smuggling drugs and operating in the El Paso area but that Gonzalez was a high ranking Mexican Drug Cartel supervisor.
Gonzalez was in fact an informant for ICE, Allen said Tuesday. He started working for the agency sometime after fleeing Mexico and trying to cut ties with the cartel in 2008, though investigators believe he resumed his duties as a supervisor for smuggling operations after being confronted by cartel officials.
The shooting and the involvement of two ICE informants has strained relations among Federal and local authorities in El Paso.
Allen said he has twice met with ICE officials to complain about the lack of cooperation and information about potentially dangerous informants living in El Paso.
"The protocols are antiquated," Allen said of information sharing between federal and local agencies". We want to see some changes.
A high level government law enforcement officer said that the main reason that the local police were not informed of the highly sensitive operation was the El Paso Police Department is known to leak like a sieve.
USBFR has been told by Mexican authorities that they were aware of the Gonzalez situation and where briefed by U.S. authorities. Those same authorities indicated that they were surprised to learn that chief Allen was not kept in the loop.
Apodaca, Duran and Rodriguez were each being held on $1 million bond. Bond on the 16 year has not been set to date and may not be because he is a juvenile. It is believed that El Paso prominent criminal trail lawyer Joseph (Sib) Abraham has been contacted by at least one of the defendants. Attorney Russell M. Aboud has been retained to represent defendant Rodriguez a known Mexican Drug Cartel member. An attempt to contact both lawyers for comment went unanswered by press time.
El Paso Police told reporters that Apodaca, who is stationed at Fort Bliss, told them he was paid $10,000 cash to kill Gonzalez. Police also said that Duran said he drove the getaway car.
Allen said Apodaca and Duran were paid "quite a robust amount of money . . . under $10,000, or in that area."
Court records show that the Juarez Mexican Drug Cartel wanted Gonzalez killed because they believed he was a government informant or had changed his allegiance to a rival cartel, and had provided information to authorities that led to the arrest of a more senior cartel member known as "El Tigre".
Gonzalez's associates first became suspicious of him after cartel lieutenant Pedro "El Tigre" Aranas Sanchez was arrested in 2008 and a cartel storage facility was raided by Mexican authorities, El Paso police Lt. Alfred Lowe said.
When contacted, ICE spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa declined to comment on the case.
But recently told A/P as a matter of policy, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not confirm or deny identification of confidential sources of information," she said.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by USBFR, Rodriguez Dorado provided a statement to police confessing that he planned and organized the murder of Gonzalez . Rodriguez Dorado allegedly hired three people to commit the murder.
Documents state that two of the murder suspects identified Apodaca as the shooter, and Duran admitted that he drove the getaway vehicle after Jackson Apodaca allegedly shot the victim.
Rodriguez Dorado allegedly admitted he was a mid-level member of the cartel "La Compania" and that he was ordered by the cartel to find Gonzalez after a Mexican newspaper reported Gonzalez was an informant.
Christopher Duran
Ruben Rodriguez Dorado
He tracked down Gonzalez through license plates and allegedly paid the cell phone bill for the victim in order to try to obtain his address, according to the affidavit.
Just before the murder, Rodriguez Dorado and the other suspects allegedly met at the home of one of the victim's family members. The defendant also allegedly called a tactical supply store just hours before the murder. The store sells the same brand of ammunition found at the murder scene.
The affidavit states Gonzalez visited his family member's residence before the murder. Rodriguez Dorado and the other suspects allegedly followed Gonzalez to his East El Paso home, where the shooting took place about 10:20 p.m.
Immediately after the shooting, the suspects allegedly scattered then met in another location. Police were able to track down Rodriguez Dorado through a witness and cell phone records.
El Paso police said they are not considering the murder as spillover violence because the hit was not over turf. They said this kind of violence would have happened anywhere. It is drug-cartel related, but "it is strictly drug business as usual."
Rodriguez Dorado is a U.S. permanent resident and the two teenage suspects are U.S. citizens, police said.
Apodaca's grandfather told the news media that he doesn't believe one word of what the authorities are saying about his grandson.
"He is incapable of that...he is incapable," Dave Jackson said
The 16-year-old boy was arrested Wednesday by El Paso Police and accused of being part of the hired assassin hit squad that killed Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana a mid level member of the Juárez drug cartel in May outside his plush El Paso home.
The boy's arrest was the fourth in the death of Gonzalez.
The boy, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, was charged with capital murder.
"He was part of a surveillance team that followed (Gonzalez) to the East Side for the purpose of him being killed, and (the boy) was paid for his participation," police spokesman Officer Chris Mears told reporters.
Mears said he could not reveal whether the boy was arrested at a home or a school because that information might lead to his identification. Only the Socorro school district is now in session.
Michael Webster - Syndicated Investigative Reports are read worldwide, in 100 or more U.S. outlets and in at least 136 countries and territories. He publishes articles in association with global news agencies and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 136 countries. Many of Mr. Webster's articles are printed in six working languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. With ten more languages planed in the near future.
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Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana
Documents state that two of the murder suspects identified Apodaca as the shooter, and Duran admitted that he drove the getaway vehicle after Jackson Apodaca allegedly shot the victim.
Rodriguez Dorado allegedly admitted he was a mid-level member of the cartel "La Compania" and that he was ordered by the cartel to find Gonzalez after a Mexican newspaper reported Gonzalez was an informant.
