Reputed Mexican Mafia Figure, Accused in Cartel Case, Strikes Plea Deal
Los Angeles, CA – A long-running legal saga concluded this week with a guilty plea from reputed Mexican Mafia member Rafael “Landa-Rodriguez” Rodriguez, 54, in a racketeering case stemming from allegations he controlled criminal activity within the Los Angeles County jail system. The plea brings an end to seven years of litigation adn follows a 2019 acquittal on separate charges related to a recording of a government informant.
Rodriguez admitted in his plea agreement to involvement in a range of crimes – including murder,kidnapping,extortion,robbery,and witness tampering – orchestrated by the Mexican Mafia to “promote a climate of fear” within the county’s jails,the nation’s largest. He also acknowledged authorizing a “green light” – a hit order - on a rival in 2015.
Prosecutors initially alleged in a 2013 indictment that Rodriguez seized control of the jail system and oversaw lucrative schemes targeting the roughly 6,000 Latino inmates who comprise over half of the male inmate population. The inquiry, dubbed “Operation Dirty Thirds,” centered on allegations that Rodriguez received a one-third cut of all drug sales within the jails.
Further details revealed a elegant extortion racket known as “the kitty,” where inmates were compelled to contribute $1.50 worth of commissary items for every $7 spent. Former right-hand man Luis “hefty” Garcia testified in 2022 that this system created a secondary market within the jails, reselling the collected items at lower prices than the official commissary. Garcia testified he personally collected between $1,500 and $2,500 weekly from Men’s Central Jail, $1,000 from Twin Towers, and approximately $3,200 from the Wayside jail complex, totaling around $23,000 per month.
The case was elaborate by the earlier acquittal of Rodriguez on all charges in 2019, stemming from a dispute involving secretly recorded disparaging remarks made by a government handler. The trial of Rodriguez’s former lawyer also factored into the lengthy legal proceedings.
Defense attorney Vitaly Sigal, in a sentencing memo, highlighted his client’s decades-long incarceration, noting Rodriguez has been in custody since 1998. Sigal stated that when Rodriguez was last free, “Bill Clinton was the president of the United states, the internet was a relatively new concept that needed to be accessed via dial-up modem [and] the top-grossing movie in the world was Titanic.” Sigal added that Rodriguez intends to return to his family’s ranch in Michoacán, Mexico, after serving his sentence and accepting deportation.
the case also touches on Rodriguez’s past connections to the La Familia Michoacana cartel,now rebranded as La Nueva Familia Michoacana,which was recently designated a foreign terrorist institution by the U.S. Treasury Department in april. Mexican authorities recently extradited La Familia leader Servando Gómez Martinez, known as “La Tuta,” to the U.S.to face drug trafficking charges. However, Sigal maintains his client has abandoned any involvement in criminal alliances, stating Rodriguez “seeks no power, status or conflict,” and desires only “the quiet dignity of growing old in the company of loved ones.”
