Police: Alleged Organizer Of Cartel Murder Was ICE Informant

EL PASO, TX — An ICE informant and aFort Bliss soldier were among three menarrested in connection to the murder of a drug cartel member outside his Eastside home, El Paso police said Tuesday.

Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana was killed on May 15, shot as he walked up to his home in the 1300 block of Pony Trail Place.

Police later told ABC-7 Gonzalez Galeana was not only a lieutenant with the Juarez cartel, but also an informant for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Investigators believe Gonzalez Galeana was targeted because he was leaking cartel information to the U.S.

Thirty-year-old Ruben Rodriguez Dorado is charged with murder, and 17-year-old Christopher Duran and 18-year-old Michael Jackson Apodaca, a soldier assigned to Fort Bliss,are charged withcapital murder, according to court documents.

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, El Paso police saidRodriguez Dorado is also an informant for ICE as well as a member of the cartel that Gonzalez Galeana was a member of.

Apodaca is a Private First-Class who joined the Army in September 2008 in El Paso. He was arrested about 11 p.m. Monday when El Paso police officers arrived at his home in El Paso, Fort Bliss officials said.

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by the ABC-7 I-Team, Rodriguez Dorado provided a statement to police confessing that he planned and organized the murder of Gonzalez Galeana.Rodriguez Doradoallegedly 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 Galeana after a Mexican newspaper reported Gonzalez Galeana was an informant.

He tracked down Gonzalez Galeana through license plates andallegedly 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. Thestore sells the same brand of ammunition found at the murder scene.

The affidavit states Gonzalez Galeana visitedhis family member’s residence before the murder. Rodriguez Dorado and the other suspects allegedly followed Gonzalez Galeana 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.

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, police said they are searching for a fourth suspect, 33-year-old Jesus Aguayo Salas, who they believe told Rodriguez Dorado to organize the hit. Police believe he is in Juarez. Anyone with information on Aguayo Salas’ whereabouts is asked to call police at(915) 832-4400 or 911.

El Paso police said they are not considering the murder asspillover 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 Doradois a U.S. permanent resident and the two teenage suspectsare U.S. citizens, police said.

Apodaca’s grandfather told ABC-7 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.

Click on the link to the left to read the suspects’ arrest affidavits for yourself.