Woman Pleads Guilty in Case Involving Drug Agent
A Manhattan Beach woman has pleaded guilty to conspiring with a veteran agent of the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement to sell cocaine.
Monica Liliana Pitto, 39, is expected to testify against state narcotics agent Richard Wayne Parker under terms of a plea agreement.
Pitto, who is free on bond, appeared before U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder without public notice Sept. 18 to enter her plea.
Her agreement was filed under seal at the request of the U.S. attorney’s office and Pitto’s lawyer. Neither side would discuss terms of the deal, but Parker’s attorneys said Monday that they assume that it calls for her to testify against the 43-year-old narcotics agent.
Parker, who worked out of the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement’s Riverside office, was arrested last July along with Pitto and three other people in an FBI sting.
Pitto was trailed from a drug transaction in the South Bay to the roof of a Pasadena parking structure, where she met Parker and allegedly turned over $38,000 in drug proceeds.
Authorities said Parker is believed to have been dealing drugs for much of his nine years at the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, a branch of the state attorney general’s office.
Parker was in court Monday in a fourth unsuccessful effort to win release on bail.
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