Federal agency alleges someone within LVPD aided drug trafficker
For more than a year, the Drug Enforcement Administration has been investigating, and attempting to disrupt, the flow of illegal drugs into Las Vegas, a search warrant affidavit filed in U.S. District Court shows.
The lengthy investigation focused on a drug trafficking organization led by Robert Corbin Padilla, who the DEA alleges is responsible for trafficking the majority of drugs into Las Vegas, but according to the affidavit, agents believe one or more people working for the Las Vegas Police Department had been alerting Padilla to details of the investigation against him.
Federal agents from the DEA and FBI — along with officers from Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Marshals Service and New Mexico State Police — swarmed Las Vegas last week as a joint task force executed multiple search warrants. While the FBI investigation focused primarily on members and associates of the Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico prison gang, the target of the DEA investigation was Padilla and those working with him.
