MCSO: Inmate plotted to kill Sheriff Joe Arpaio

PHOENIX - Three inmates at the Maricopa County Jail have been arrested for allegedly plotting to kill Sheriff Joe Arpaio and a fellow inmate.

According to a Maricopa County Sheriff's Office news release, two of the men are members of the Mexican Mafia and are in jail on felony charges.

Mark Cons, 33, and Rudolfo Santos, 37, were served with arrest warrants by sheriff's detectives on Wednesday morning.

A third man, 29-year-old Samuel Matta, is a member of a documented street gang and incarcerated at the state prison in Florence, authorities said.

All three are charged with conspiracy to commit the murder of another jail inmate.

The sheriff's office said the investigation began in March after detectives were tipped off by an inmate that Samuel Matta was allegedly planning to publicly assassinate Sheriff Joe Arpaio using a high powered rifle.

He planned to carry out the assassination plot once he was released from jail because he believed the sheriff was personally responsible for the deportation of some of his family members to Mexico from their home in El Mirage, according to the news release.

The investigation led to another plot in which the three suspects were conspiring to kill another inmate, a rival gang member.

The entire investigation unfolded in April, a month which saw higher than usual levels of gang and racial tensions inside the Fourth Avenue Jail, authorities said.

At that time Sheriff Joe Arpaio called for a two-week lock down of the maximum security jail in downtown Phoenix.