Profile

Name: Ruben Lopez
Sex: Male
Race: Hispanic
Age Now: 51
Height: 5'8\"
Weight: 180 lbs
Hair (Color, Description, Facial Hair): Black\rLong, flowing jet black hair.\rWears a goatee
Eyes (Color and Correction): Brown
Wanted for: Conspiracy To Commit Murder, San Jose, CA; Mar 03, 1997

Locations

Last seen: Unkown
Possible location: Humboldt, TN Mexico Florida New York California Long Beach, CA Japan
Last known: Unkown

Traits

Native of Tijuana, Mexico
Workaholic
Hangs around auto lowrider car shows
Machinist, automotive engineer
Loves lowrider cars
Married to Margaret Elaine Lopez and has children

Case Story

Hittin' Switches Leads To A Hit

The custom lowrider car parts supply industry can be very lucrative.  Most are in it for the money, and where there is money, there is inevitably competition.  When lowrider enthusiasts gather to show off their customized, high-tech vehicular superiority, they make the cars bounce up and down by flipping control buttons that activate the hydraulic shocks system. Lowriders call it "Hittin' Switches". The companies that specialize in manufacturing those custom shocks and switch systems are part of a multimillion-dollar auto parts industry, and everyone is trying to make a hydraulic system that will one up the competition. Steve Miller and his father, Leonard Miller, owned and operated a company in this industry called Lowrider Hydraulics in San Jose, Calif. David Lopez and his brothers, Ruben and Efram, operated a company called Red's Hydraulics in Long Beach, Calif. The two companies were fierce competitors, and San Jose Police say Ruben Lopez and his brother David were involved in a business dispute with Steve Miller. It seems Reuben Lopez wanted to be the king of the lowrider industry, and would stop at nothing to get there. Miller had no desire to be the lowrider czar like Lopez did, and simply wanted a level playing field. But when Miller challenged some of Lopez's business practices, the wannabe lowrider honcho was infuriated. Cops think the Lopez brothers decided to resolve the conflict with murder.

Hitmen Kill The Wrong Man

Detectives say David and his brother, Ruben, hired three men from Los Angeles and sent them to San Jose to kill Steve Miller. On the morning of March 3, 1997, one of the men entered Lowrider Hydraulics and asked to see the owner. When Steve's father, 60-year-old Leonard Miller walked out to the counter, he was gunned down. The intended target, Steve Miller, was not at work that morning. Steve lost his father and best friend on that fatefull morning. Within weeks, the three contract killers were arrested. The murder weapon was recovered on the side of a highway after one of the killers tossed it out of the car window during their getaway. The hit men implicated David and Ruben Lopez as the men who had hired them to kill Steve Miller. But before police could arrest them, the Lopez brothers rounded up their family and disappeared from Long Beach. Since then, various tipsters say they've spotted the Lopez brothers at car shows from coast to coast. The Lopez brothers have been profiled on AMW numerous times during their as of June 2008 eleven years on the run.   Each airing has generated numerous tips and credible sightings, but Ruben and David Lopez continue to elude the long arm of the law.  Red's Hydraulics continues to be a major player in the Low Rider world under the direction of the third Lopez brother, Efram, who was not implicated in the murder plot against the Millers. Investigators believe that the Lopez brothers still have substantial financial resources and a network of friends and associates who who'll protect them.  Credible tips indicate that Ruben and David Lopez are very mobile, and may be moving back and forth across the border between Mexico and the U.S.