By KRWG News
El Paso – Authorities say a fifth person has been charged in the contract killing of Mexican drug cartel lieutenant-turned-U.S. informant.
Police said in a statement Friday that Orlando Rafael Benavente, 31, was arrested and charged Tuesday with capital murder. Bond was set at $2 million.
It was not immediately clear whether Benavente had an attorney.
Investigators have said that the May 15 hit on Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement informant and one-time smuggling manager for the Juarez drug cartel, was planned and carried out by a fellow cartel member who also was working with ICE.
Investigators said Gonzalez was targeted because cartel officials in Mexico believed he was an informant or had switched allegiances amid the gang's violent struggle for control of Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.