A long-running border murder case took another turn on Wednesday, when 59-year-old Enrique “Kiki” Guajardo López admitted in federal court to racketeering-related drug charges and his role as a lookout in the 2010 Ciudad Juárez consulate killings.
Guajardo acknowledged acting as a lookout in the March 13, 2010, ambush that killed U.S. consulate employee Leslie Ann Enriquez Catton, her husband Arthur Redelfs, and Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled, but under the counts he admitted to, Guajardo faces a potential life term.
According to KFOX, Guajardo pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy to distribute and import drugs and conceded that he served as a lookout during the deadly attack. Prosecutors told the court he faces a life sentence, while a federal judge has yet to set a date for his sentencing.
Long-running federal case
The prosecution stems from a third superseding indictment unsealed in 2011 that charged 35 Barrio Azteca members and associates with racketeering, narcotics distribution and other crimes, according to the Justice Department. That indictment named ten defendants in connection with the March 13, 2010 murders of the consulate employee and two others as they left a child’s birthday party in Ciudad Juárez.
Trials, pleas and extraditions
Two alleged gunmen in the attack, Jose Guadalupe Diaz Diaz ("Zorro") and Martin Artin Perez Marrufo ("Popeye"), were convicted at trial in 2022 and later received life sentences, according to court records and opinions.
Eduardo Ravelo, a former FBI Ten Most Wanted fugitive who was extradited from Mexico in February 2025, pleaded guilty in December 2025 to racketeering and murder-related charges in the same investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration said.
What comes next
Guajardo’s plea marks another chapter closed in the sprawling case, but his fate now rests with a federal judge, who will weigh any plea agreement alongside the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines before imposing punishment. As KFOX reports, the racketeering and drug-importation charges he admitted to carry stiff penalties, including the possibility of life in prison.
Why it matters
Prosecutors have pointed to years of cross-border coordination and multiple extraditions as key to getting suspects before U.S. courts, a point underscored when major defendants were flown to El Paso in early 2025, the Justice Department said. The matter remains one of the most significant prosecutions of a transnational gang working the U.S.-Mexico border. It underscores how law enforcement on both sides continues to lean in on violent organized-crime cases.
