THE BORDER REPORT

Cd. Juárez – A high level cartel figure assassinated in El Paso last month was murdered because his killers believed he was working as an informant for a U.S. law enforcement agency, say sources in Juárez familiar with the situation.

Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana worked for La Linea, the crew of killers operating under the auspices of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes in Cd. Juárez. On May 15, Gonzalez was gunned down outside the home of his girlfriend in a swank El Paso neighborhood, just down the street from that of the El Paso police chief. It's the highest level cartel assassination performed on the U.S. side of the border since that of Guillermo Gonzalez Calderóni in McAllen, Texas, six years ago.

Gonzaléz Galeana (no known relation), also known as El Picus, hailed from Villa Ahumada, Chihuahua. He answered directly to Pedro Sanchez Arras, El Tigre. Sanchez was the number three man of the Juárez Cartel, only behind Jose Luis Ledezma, El JL, and Vicente Carrillo himself. The Mexican Army arrested Sanchez in Hidalgo in May 2008.

The question remains, who else did he answer to?

"Se dice que El Picus fue el dedo, pero fuera de ahí no se," says a source in the city I spoke with.

A second person, within the Federal Attorney General's Office: "Le dieron piso por que el mismo lo puso con las autoridades."

If it's true that Gonzalez worked as a snitch for the Feds, the question of motive needs to first be addressed. Did he betray El Tigre because he wanted to take over the U.S. side of narco-trafficking sales? People have been betrayed for far cheaper than the entryway to an entire U.S. market. Was he flipped? A possibility, though nothing turns up in state or federal court records with his name on it, not even a sealed indictment. Or was he working both sides, pulling double agent detail on the U.S. cops and the Juárez Cartel? Or did he flip twice; after all, the Sinaloans have a strong presence in this city too. The violence in Juárez has flared up again. Sixteen people were murdered between Friday and Saturday. Clearly the contention for this plaza is not over.

And something tells me this story is far from over as well.