Hitman ‘was in trouble’ and couldn’t accept $15,000 job to kill two people, feds say
A man wanted two people in Florida killed over a $60,000 debt, but the hitman he had in mind for the job was unavailable, federal prosecutors said.
After haggling over the price, Antonio Jose Melean Reyes, 29, of Jacksonville, agreed to hire the hitman for $15,000 in messages exchanged with an “associate,” according to court documents.
However, the associate then informed Reyes the “hitman was in trouble with the police and could not assist in the plot,” court documents say.
Reyes pleaded guilty on Jan. 3 to a conspiracy to use a facility of interstate commerce in the commission of a murder-for-hire, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida announced in a news release.
He also pleaded guilty to smuggling firearms from the United States — a charge stemming from an earlier event, which led authorities to discover the murder-for-hire conspiracy, according to prosecutors.
Reyes’ defense attorney David Frakt declined a request for comment from McClatchy News on Jan. 4. His other defense attorney, Jose Antonio Leon, didn’t provide an immediate response for comment.
How the murder-for-hire plot was uncovered
In May 2021, Reyes stuffed a futon with three firearms and 57 rounds of ammunition to secretly smuggle the weapons to Venezuela from Jacksonville, prosecutors said.
His plan to mail the futon through a freight forwarding service proved unsuccessful, as employees found the hidden guns and ammo during an X-ray of the package, according to the attorney’s office.
Homeland Security Investigations agents ultimately seized the Glock 17 pistol and two Smith and Wesson M&P 15 rifles at the freight forwarding service’s distribution center in Miami on May 22, 2021, according to Reyes’ plea agreement.
Each firearms’ serial numbers were obliterated, but forensic technicians at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives restored them, prosecutors said.
Investigators also found Reyes’ phone number and address on the shipping documents for the futon, according to the attorney’s office.
On Aug. 11, 2023, after Reyes was arrested “for an unrelated violation of state probation,” ATF, HSI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents interviewed him at Duval County Jail in Jacksonville, the plea agreement says.
There, he agreed to an interview, told agents he tried smuggling firearms to Venezuela and allowed agents to extract his cellphone’s data, according to the plea agreement.
Investigators found Reyes’ conversations with his associate about trafficking firearms, then found conversations about the murder-for-hire plot discussed between July 12, 2023 through Aug. 9, the plea agreement says.
According to prosecutors, Reyes and others surveilled the two intended victims —Venezuelan nationals living in Jacksonville — including by following them outside of their home.
After Reyes tried hiring the hitman for $15,000, he was arrested Aug. 31, his plea agreement says.
Following his arrest, he told agents he conspired “with others to commit a murder-for-hire of the intended victims based on” the $60,000 debt “they owed,” according to the plea agreement.
Prosecutors didn’t specify who the others were.
The “associate” Reyes messaged wasn’t charged in connection with the plot, records show. Other charges, related to firearms, against him are pending.
Reyes faces up to 10 years in prison for each charge he pleaded guilty to, prosecutors said.
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