Truth is often stranger than fiction, especially when it comes to the story of Arlene Rodriguez, the so-called Queen of Florencia.
Reporter Sam Quinones wrote about Rodriguez, who seemed to lead an ordinary life as a single mother of four who worked as a real estate agent in Los Angeles. But around the same time, she became entangled with the Mexican Mafia and the Florencia 13 street gang.
Here's Quinones, talking about Rodriguez, and the incredible way she achieved the status as a "llavero," or shot caller.
In his Los Angeles Magazine article, Quinones said that in the early 1990's, the Mexican Mafia prison gang set up a system where the local drug dealers would have to pay a "tax" to the local neighborhood street gang, who would then funnel that money to the Mexican Mafia. But in order for that to work, there had to be someone on the street who was in charge of overseeing the operation, and that person was referred to as a "llavero," which translates into English as a key holder.
Arturo “Tablas” Castellanos was serving a life sentence in Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California, but he was nevertheless in charge of Florencia 13. Through a series of events, he decided to make Rodriguez the llavera for the gang, which was a very unusual job for a woman to have. Here's a passage from Quinones' Los Angeles Magazine story:
A llavera? Arlene had never heard of a female shot caller. Castellanos likely saw in her everything the typical llavero was not. Llaveros were usually parolees or criminals with drug addictions. She had a real job, with no drug problem and not much of a criminal record (Arlene was convicted of smuggling marijuana from Mexico in 1999).
“OK,” she said, not knowing what other answer would work, and that afternoon, as she steered her car south, she wondered what she had gotten into. One week later, she says, Castellanos wrote a kite to a connected friend of hers: Arlene’s in charge now, it read.
“Damn!” said the friend. “A female."
A Martinez spoke to Sam Quinones about his story, and what happened to Arlene Rodriguez.
(click on the blue arrow to hear the entire interview)