An investigation into the killing of a man who had confronted graffiti taggers has revealed an unrelated murder plot by Mexican Mafia leaders battling over control of the illegal drug trade in the San Gabriel Valley, authorities said Thursday.
The case provides a rare glimpse of how the prison gang controls Latino gangs on Southern California's streets, and of the role mafia wives and girlfriends play in ordering robberies, extortions and even murders on the outside.
It "peels back the smelly rotten onion that is the Mexican Mafia and shows that when their men are in prison, oftentimes the women run the show," Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said at a news conference on the case.
The case grew out of the killing of Robert Whitehead, 44, who was shot to death in March 2006 after challenging young gang members he caught crossing out another gang's graffiti on a neighbor's garage.
"He was simply defending his neighborhood and paid for his bravery with his life," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina.
Sheriff's deputies said Thursday that they had arrested an alleged La Puente gang member, Anthony Alex Castillo, 20, in Whitehead's slaying. Another reputed gang member, Robert "Pee Wee" Lopez, is being sought; the suspected shooter was killed earlier this year.
As detectives examined the Whitehead case, they "stumbled across" a connection to Maria Delores "Lola" Llantada, 43, said Gary Hearnsberger, chief gang prosecutor for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
Llantada is the girlfriend of Jacques "Jocko" Padilla, a reputed Mexican Mafia member serving a life sentence for murder at Corcoran State Prison.
From his cell, Padilla controls the drug taxation in Azusa and parts of La Puente, "taxing" dealers for operating in areas he claims as his turf, say law enforcement officers and gang members.
Llantada, they allege, runs street operations for Padilla -- allegedly using their daughter, Doreen Padilla, 24, as a go-between during prison visits to her father.
Earlier this year, two reputed Mexican Mafia members, Raphael "Cisco" Gonzalez and Ralph "Perico" Rocha, were paroled from federal prison and tried to muscle in on Llantada's La Puente and Norwalk narcotics territory, prosecutors said.
The case, together with interviews with law enforcement and gang members, paints a picture of the Mexican Mafia as a snake pit. Though calling each other "brothers," members constantly conspire against one another and use young street gang members to do their dirtiest work.
