A federal judge in Houston handed down stiff prison sentences Wednesday for Tri City Bomber gang members from Edinburg and McAllen. Sentences stem from their roles in an ongoing racketeering case that involves murder and attempted murder.
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake sentenced 50-year-old Mike Bueno, of Edinburg, to nearly 22 years in prison and 45-year-old Octavio Muniz, of McAllen, to 12-and-a-half years in prison.
Both men have lengthy criminal histories in Hidalgo County.
“In handing down the sentences, Judge Lake found Bueno to be a ranking member of the Tri City Bombers (TCB). The court noted his involvement in an ongoing marijuana conspiracy, a carjacking and a home invasion burglary that resulted in the death of the homeowner. The homeowner’s son was also shot, but survived and was present in court for today’s hearing,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release Wednesday.
The man who died is Victor Serna, and Bueno and several other gang members had gone to his home believing there was marijuana to steal there.
Bueno’s plea packet reveals that the murder happened on April 12, 2012, after Juan Antonio Moreno and Luis Alberto Tello learned there were several hundred pounds of marijuana stored at a house in the 7000 block of Rambo Street in Edinburg.
Moreno is a co-defendant of both men and pleaded guilty in 2014 to conspiracy to distribute marijuana and violent crime/drugs/machine gun. He has not yet been sentenced because he is likely a witness in Bueno and Muniz’s case, which has a total of 32 suspects, 25 of whom have admitted guilt.
Tello pleaded guilty the same year to the same crimes and is still awaiting sentencing, court records show.
Tello and Moreno approached another man named Jose Alberto Lopez, who received permission from Bueno, who was a leader in the gang outside of the prison system, to conduct the home invasion, according to the plea agreement.
Lopez was charged along with Tello and Moreno, and pleaded guilty to the same crimes and is still awaiting sentencing.
Several of Bueno’s co-defendants drove to the house and threatened Serna and during a struggle, Lopez shot Serna in the head and shot his son in the stomach and the leg.
Wednesday’s news release said that Muniz was involved in the attempted murder of a woman the gang was hired to kill.
She was shot six times, but survived.
That shooting happened on Sept. 24, 2013, in Mission.
Two more co-defendants in the racketeering case are accused of using an AR-15 firearm to shoot at the woman while she was in the driver’s seat of a vehicle.
Muniz also admitted to being involved with the transportation of 2,004 pounds of marijuana to Dallas while Bueno admitted to being involved with stealing at gunpoint 1,984 pounds of marijuana from another drug trafficker in McAllen and then reselling the marijuana, according to court documents.
