Ruben ‘Menace’ Reyes Gets Life for 5 Murders

San Antonio’s streets are rid of a monster. Ruben Reyes, 38, known by the blood-soaked alias ‘Menace,’ was sentenced this morning to five consecutive life terms in federal prison for orchestrating and carrying out five brutal murders tied to his rise in the Texas Mexican Mafia (TMM). The killings—including four fellow gang members and a compromised police officer—were acts of internal cleansing, retaliation, and enforcement of cartel rule, according to federal prosecutors.

Reyes, once dubbed ‘Lieutenant of Lieutenants’ within the TMM hierarchy, pleaded guilty on July 28, 2016, to five counts of aiding and abetting the use and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, and five counts of violent crime in aid of racketeering (VICAR). The sentence, handed down by Senior U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra, includes a recommendation that Reyes serve his time at the ADX ‘Supermax’ facility in Florence, Colorado—the federal prison reserved for the nation’s most dangerous inmates.

The first murder Reyes admitted to was the cold-blooded execution of TMM member Ulysses Farias in front of his family on October 12, 2013. Reyes and fellow member Jerry Moreno carried out the hit after TMM leadership suspected Farias of cooperating with federal authorities. Compounding the betrayal, Farias had violated gang protocol by bringing his wife on ‘dime’ collection runs—the TMM’s 10 percent tax on drug dealers operating in their territory, enforced through violence and protection.

On January 13, 2014, Reyes escalated his body count, gunning down TMM ‘Captain’ Mark Anthony Bernal (aka ‘Lefty’), ‘General’ Carlos Chapa (aka ‘Worm’), and ‘Lieutenant of Lieutenants’ Johnny Solis (aka ‘Smiley’) over the alleged mismanagement of $60,000 and poor leadership decisions. After the triple execution, Reyes personally transported and buried the bodies in Pearsall, Texas, in a grim testament to his operational control and ruthlessness.

Perhaps most brazen was Reyes’ role in the murder of Balcones Heights Police Officer Julian Pesina on May 4, 2014. Though sworn to uphold the law, Pesina was deep in the TMM’s fold—sporting gang tattoos, selling drugs to members, and claiming affiliation. Under orders from TMM leadership, Reyes dispatched a TMM member, a prospect, and a disgraced associate to assassinate Pesina outside his ‘Notorious Ink Tattoo and Piercing Studio.’ The murder weapons were later handed over to Reyes himself.

‘Reyes was aptly nicknamed,’ said United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr. ‘The outstanding efforts of the investigators from the cooperating law enforcement agencies have removed this ‘menace’ from the streets and made San Antonio safer.’ The case was led by the FBI in coordination with the San Antonio Police Department, Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigations Division, Bexar County Sheriff’s Department, Frio County Sheriff’s Department, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.