Man Arrested in Texas Border Cockfighting Drug Murder Case

MCALLEN, Texas — A Texas border man is behind bars and another man remains on the run for their alleged role in an old drug murder at a cockfighting ring that doubled as a drug distribution point

Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Deputies and the U.S. Marshals Service arrested 31-year-old Rene Villarreal on one count of capital murder and a local justice of the peace set his bond at $1 million. Authorities are still hunting for Villarreal’s uncle Maximiliano Godinez.

The tale of drugs, roosters, and murder began in late October 27, 2013 when Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to Godinez’s home in a rural area north of the border city of Alamo in connection with a double homicide, according to court records obtained by Breitbart Texas.

The murder was initially looked at by authorities as a self-defense shooting when Godinez told investigators that he had shot two men that had gone to his property to buy roosters but then tried to rob him. The case turned a little more interesting when a search of the property turned up a cockfighting ring in the back of the house.  Later that week authorities arrested Villarreal on the charge of tampering with evidence and Godinez on the charge of being a felon in possession of a weapon since had a prior drug trafficking conviction.

As the investigation continued authorities learned later on that the house, in addition to being used to host illegal cockfights, was also being used to store and sell marijuana loads.

Illegal cockfighting rings near the Texas border while deep underground and hidden in rural areas remain prevalent and appear to draw violence. In 2012 a group of gunmen stormed a large cockfighting ring with close to a 100 people inside in a rural location about 16 miles north of McAllen. During the poorly executed assassination the gunmen wildly sprayed gunfire at a group of men killing their two targets and a bystander as well as injuring multiple other bystanders. The two targets of that hit were from the Mexican city of San Fernando and had a long history of drug trafficking activity

Follow Ildefonso Ortiz on Twitter @ildefonsoortiz