On 24 May 1993, Cardinal Posadas was murdered, struck by 14 bullets during a shootout at Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport.

According to a cable of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the cardinal was mistaken for Joaquín Guzmán Loera,[2] "El Chapo", the head of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Benjamín Arellano Félix gave up two members of the hit squad: Juan Enrique Vasconez and Ramon Torres Mendez.

[4] The Posadas case was reopened after Vicente Fox won the presidential election in 2000, ending seven decades of one-party rule.

Deputy Attorney General María de la Luz Lima Malvido cited serious irregularities in earlier probes, including police obstruction and the disappearance of over 1,000 key documents.

In the aforementioned press release, Department of Justice officials said that Javier Arellano Félix was also charged in Mexico in 1993 with conspiring to assassinate Posadas.

In Netflix's show Narcos: Mexico, Season 3 Episode 4, Posadas is assassinated by Ramón Arellano Félix's gunmen during a shootout with Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.