Sheriff Joe’s Would-Be Assassins Indicted

Law enforcement officers in Arizona say they have broken up an alleged plot to assassinate Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is at odds with the White House over his investigation of Obama’s birth documentation, with the Department of Justice over his crackdown on illegal aliens, and assorted criminals already in jail.

The sheriff’s office said today that three maximum security inmates were arrested for conspiracy to commit murder “stemming from a complex plot” that involved the assassination of the sheriff as well as a plot to murder another inmate.

Authorities report Mark Cons, 33, and Rudolfa Santos, 37, “members of the Mexican Mafia currently housed in the sheriff’s 4th Avenue Jail on felony counts,” were served with arrest warrants for the alleged plots.

Samual Matta, 29, “a member of a documented street gang and who is currently incarcerated in the state prison in Florence,” also was accused of conspiracy to commit murder.

Authorities say the investigation began several months ago when detectives were tipped off by an inmate in jail on multiple homicide charges that Matta allegedly was planning to assassinate Arpaio using a rifle.

“Matta, who was planning to carry out the assassination plot once he was released from jail, believed that the sheriff was personally responsible for the deportation of some of his members of his family to Mexico from their home in El Mirage, Ariz.,” the detectives’ report said.

The investigation into that alleged plot then led to information about another scenario in which the three inmates allegedly conspired to kill an inmate who was a member of a rival gang.

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A spokesman for the sheriff said it was at least the third plot that has been uncovered targeting Arpaio just this year.

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