SAN ANTONIO – Last year, the gangland-style execution of Balcones Heights police Officer Julian Pesina shocked many San Antonians when it was discovered Pesina was allegedly associated with the Texas Mexican Mafia.
"It appears, when you look at the pictures of Officer Pesina, that he was showing symbols of the Mexican Mafia," said Gabe Morales, an expert on prison gangs. "He had tattoos that represent the Mexican Mafia. Any police officer that's been through the academy gets gang training, which he did, you would know, that's a no-no. He violated that. If he was mocking them, then that was a very dangerous game to play."
It is still unknown what Pesina's exact ties were to the gang and what led to his murder.
Three suspects have been arrested in the Pesina murder but the case remains open, according to police.
Pesina's slaying put the spotlight back on the Texas Mexican Mafia, which has been involved in several other high-profile public executions over the years.
The mid-1990s were a particularly violent time in the history of the TMM. An internal power struggle led to the deaths of several members who were attempting to take control of the gang.
At the time, Robert "Beaver" Perez was the general in charge of San Antonio. Upset that people had stopped paying the "dime," a 10 percent tax on drugs charged by the gang, Perez wanted to send a message. The message resulted in the deaths of five people in 1997, which became known as the West French Place massacre.
"He was going to make an example out of them," Morales said. "It was approved from the higher up ranks in the Mexikanemi. So these people were brutally murdered, duct-taped, tied up and shot in the head execution-style."
Morales said the crime was meant to be gruesome, and Perez knew it would send the right message to those who dealt with the gang.
"They knew that people would see that and it would send a message to people who might hesitate on paying the tax," Morales said. "As you can probably imagine, a lot of people started paying up after that."
The crime generated a wave of publicity for the gang and resulted in plenty of heat from local and federal investigators.
"They know that there's going to be collateral damage after big cases like this," Morales said. "They know that people are going to get rolled up, tossed into jail and they might get sent to prison. It is the cost of doing business."
For Perez, the cost was a death sentence, but it wasn't for the West French Place killings.
While federal investigators linked him to the West French Place killings and 10 other gang-sanctioned hits in a federal trial, he received the death penalty for his involvement in the murders of two rival TMM members in a 1994 shootout.
The West French Place murders may be the most notorious killings carried out by TMM, but they have been followed by many more high-profile murders of leaders in the gang who have fallen out of favor.
Morales and other law enforcement officials worry what will happen when the current leadership is replaced in the future.
"Wars do occur with these guys, but they're usually pretty good at policing themselves, disciplining themselves, at least the older guys are. When they die off, that's when I see there's going to be probably open warfare for control of the organization," Morales said. "That's going to be a day that hopefully doesn't come too soon, but when it does, hopefully law enforcement is prepared, both in the federal system, Texas system and locally here in San Antonio."
Perez remained a general in the gang until he was executed by the state of Texas in 2007.
His final words were: "I'm ready warden. I got my boots on, like a cowboy."