A member of the Mexican Mafia gang has been sentenced to five separate life in prison sentences for the murder of a police officer and other executions.
On Wednesday morning, Ruben “Menace” Reyes, a member of the Mexican Mafia with the rank of “Lieutenant of Lieutenants” went before Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra in San Antonio, who handed down five consecutive terms of life in prison, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed. At the time of sentencing, Judge Ezra requested that Reyes serve his prison term Florence, Colorado, in the maximum security prison known as Supermax.
On July 28, 2016, Reyes pleaded guilty to multiple crimes to include violent acts and racketeering. As part of his guilty plea, Reyes admitted to having ordered the murder of Balcones Heights Police Officer Julian Pecina in 2014, outside of a tattoo parlor owned by the cop. Even though Pecina was a police officer, he claimed to be a member of the Mexican Mafia and had various tattoos used by members. According to prosecutors, Pecina would sell drugs to other Mexican Mafia members.
Reyes also admitted to his role in the 2013 murder of Mexican Mafia member Ulysses Farias in San Antonio in an attempt to improve his standing with the gang. Farias was killed in front of his wife. The murder was carried out after gang leaders feared that Farias was talking to federal authorities. Farias was also accused of breaking gang rules by taking his wife to collect taxes on street level drug dealers.
As part of his plea, Reyes admitted to having murdered three other Mexican Mafia leaders for mishandling $60,000 in gang monies. After personally shooting the three men, Reyes buried the bodies in Pearsall, Texas.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
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