MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon –Mexican officials say the fugitive Mexican drug lord wanted in Texas for the murder of an FBI informant near Dallas is the prime intellectual suspect behind a gruesome murder and a series of threats against border state cops.

Top ranking Mexican military intelligence sources consulted by Breitbart Texas revealed that Jose Rodolfo “El Gato” Villarreal Hernandez is believed to have ordered his henchmen to torture and murder an unidentified man. The killers left the victim inside a recently stolen vehicle with license plates SRD-8250 along one of the main avenues in the Monterrey metropolitan area. Police found a threatening message left by the killers claiming that a state police leader had stolen a drug load.

Sources consulted by Breitbart Texas revealed that there was no stolen drug shipment. The body left along Morones Prieto Avenue message was meant to intimidate state police intelligence agents and investigators who had been targeting his organization, officials stated.

Soon after the murder, authorities arrested four assassins who have been identified as Jorge Arnoldo Villalobos Carrillo, Jose Carlos Peña Hernández, Mario Rodriguez Velazquez, and Luis Enrique Treviño Rodriguez. The suspects are described by Mexican military intelligence officials as being part of the inner circle in Gato’s criminal organization.

Based out of the ritzy suburb of San Pedro and once part of the Beltran Leyva Cartel, El Gato and his men control the local drug distribution, extort major businesses, and run a massive tax fraud operation.

In order to control his criminal empire, El Gato, a former federale himself, has developed a network of law enforcement officials in local state and federal agencies that provide him with protection and information.

Villarreal Hernandez is currently wanted in the U.S. for allegedly ordering the murder of Gulf Cartel attorney-turned-government informant Jesus Guerrero Chapa. Guerrero Chapa was living in the Dallas suburb of Southlake when gunmen murdered him after a long-term surveillance operation. Villarreal had a personal vendetta against Guerrero Chapa, who he blamed for the murder of his father

Breitbart Texas obtained exclusive access to an intelligence report from this week’s murder, that revealed that authorities tracked the four gunmen to San Pedro where they caught up with them in a Mazda automobile with license plates SNW-2270. At the time of the arrest, the gunmen had two rifles, a handgun, and drugs in their possession. Both the license plates in the Mazda and the minivan used to dump the body had been switched prior to the crime. The report also revealed that one of the gunmen has been linked to another cartel execution earlier this year in the parking lot of a Costco store.

As Breitbart Texas has reported, El Gato has previously threatened top officials with the Nuevo Leon State Investigations Agency, blaming them for the arrest and upcoming extradition of his brother Ramon “Mon” Villarreal and the arrest of his top lieutenant Luis Lauro “La Mora” Ramirez Bautista. After each of those high-profile arrests, El Gato targeted state officials and threatened individual agents.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Tony Aranda from Nuevo Leon.