Even after being deciphered, the coded message of the prison seemed strange.
In a recorded call, an inmate of the County of Los Angeles recited a series of figures to a woman at the other end of the line: “84, 89, 17, 17, 31 …”
The sheriff deputies had seized a handwritten key seized from the interior of the prison which allowed them to decode it. “I need that you were going to buy two major pringle chips,” he started, according to the registers of the law forces examined by the Times.
The exchange of April 2024 is at the heart of an arrest by the investigators of the sheriff of one of their own: the deputy Michael Meiser, assigned to a specialized unit which monitored the activity of the gangs in the largest prison complex in the country. He is now accused of conspiracy with “shooting calls” of gangs to pass smuggling heroine in locking.
The deputies arrested Meiser on April 30, 2024. Inside a bag that Meiser would have brought on prison fields, the investigators found more than one hidden heroine book inside two pringles tubes.
In the prisons, where the detainees sell heroin in tiny smear called “papers”, this amount was worth $ 226,000, a lieutenant of a sheriff wrote in a report.
Meiser pleaded not guilty of conspiracy to distribute drugs in prison and participate in a gang plot. His lawyer did not return a request for comments.
Other deputies assigned to the security prisons of the operation have not been involved in the drug trafficking scheme. But a report lodged by the internal criminal investigation office of the Sheriff Department depicted a team that accepted gang leaders exercised more authority over the detainees than their jailers.
The partner of Meiser spoke of being “on the same wavelength” with “captines” of prisoners on questions such as overdoses and violence, which the deputies estimated that they were powerless to prevent. MP Jose Munguia said that in his interview with domestic affairs, he and Meiser asked gang leaders to avoid killing someone or injuring deputies when they dispensed their own discipline brand.
The managers of the Sheriff Department did not answer questions directly on how the unit of Meiser signed up with the gang leaders. “We hold our employees to the highest standards and we expect them to safeguard individuals in our care,” said the ministry in an unconted email declaration. “When they violate the law, they will be held responsible.”
The files show that the partner of Meiser said that their approach was intended to minimize chaos in the prison system. Meiser became a friend with detainees who wanted the deputy’s ear – but that also brought him closer to the hardened criminals who used violence to maintain the right drugs in drugs and extortion.
At the time of the arrest of his partner, Munguia said: “We would cross a building and all that you would hear is” Meiser. ” Meiser. Meiser. Meiser. ‘All prisoners are like just trying to talk to him. They all scream his name for bars. »»
Meiser, 39, was assigned to the Correctional Center of the county of North, one of the eight prisons of the county which together contain more than 12,000 detainees.
About half of these prisoners are Latinos, and Munguia told internal investigators that the Mexican mafia dictates their lives behind bars. Syndicate in prison of around 140 members of senior Latin gangs, the Mexican mafia designates prisoners to supervise drugs of drugs and extortion in specific prisons or modules.
It was the work of Meiser and Munguia to investigate these “captines” by listening to their telephone calls, by monitoring surveillance cameras in the prison and by interviewing the informants, Mongguia told internal investigators.
The “shooting” of the Correctional Establishment of the county of North was Jose Rodriguez, a renowned member of the gang of boys of the Pacoima project, called “Benji”, said Much.
Rodriguez, 47, issued “driving license” prisoners – handwritten notes giving them permission to sell drugs – and a discipline imposed in the form of blows, said the deputy.
Correctional ease of the county of North in Castaic.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
“If they were to make workforce, narcotics, everything crossed him,” said Munguia.
We can expect the detainees and their jailers to be sworn in enemies, but Munguia described the adoption of a less than narrow approach from Rodriguez.
“Let’s say there is a riot, Hispanics against black detainees in the dormitory,” said Mongguia to internal investigators. “Of course, we would do it – we would go to him and ask him to make sure that, as will not continue.”
Rodriguez has often sent his right arm, Jackie Triplett, to speak on his behalf, according to Munguia. Triplett, 40, and Meiser had a “report” because they had common friends in the Antelope valley, said Mongguia.
The main problems they discussed were to maintain overdoses and racial tensions at least, Mongguia said. Gang leaders seem to have taken the talks seriously. According to the internal affairs report, the deputies seized a list of the “rules and expectations” of the Rodriguez berth which was addressed to Latinos.
Fentanyl, a powerful opioid who led to an increase in fatal overdoses, has been prohibited. The same goes for “lacking respect” for prison staff and bought drugs from prisoners from other breeds.
“Whoever chooses to go against this must be processed accordingly,” warned the message.
Another note seized in the Rodriguez lounge has listed the discipline registered for the week. The offenses were from the use of fentanyl to “gossip” so as not to repay a debt. The offenders were punished with blows – the less severe 13 seconds, the hardest a “smash -out” who so seriously injured that a detainee was required to remove him from the prison module.
Munguia told internal investigators that he and Meiser did not think they could prevent gang leaders from ordering violence. Instead, they reasoned with Rodriguez and Triplett to “mitigate it,” he said.
“If you are going to attack someone, we don’t want deputies to be injured,” he recalls. “We don’t want – obviously, we don’t want prisoners to die. So let’s try to do it as minimal as possible and do not pay more attention. »»
The internal investigator seemed puzzled.
“It would seem to me that this practice almost allowed prisoners,” he said. “In a way, do you recognize their authority by doing this?” Is it correct?
Munguia said that he did not agree with the approach, which he claimed to have learned to Meiser, but “the way I was taught was, as, it had to be done.”
From February 2024, investigators from an FBI working group noticed a series of strange telephone calls made by Triplett and Rodriguez, according to the internal affairs report.
Triplett spoke to a woman who said that she had bought “white Jordans” and “black Jordans” – a coded language for methamphetamine and heroin, the investigators suspected.
The next day, Meiser was shown on the prison surveillance cameras which puts a bag back and released, the report said. Later in the evening, Triplett called to thank the woman, who said it was her “time to shine”, according to the report.
Central prison for men.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Two months later, an inmate of the Rodriguez module read the number chain who was then decoded to be a request for pringles.
“Whatever the girlfriend who gives you half in half in the other,” said the rest of the message, according to the internal affairs report. “Put a few tokens on the top and SUAL like his brand new.”
Rodriguez was recorded during a prison call asking her sister to send a “1 hour” and a “5 hours” – a code for $ 1,000 and $ 5,000, according to investigators – at the Cashapp account of the brother -in -law of Meiser, the report said.
The day after the call, the detectives of internal affairs obtained a mandate to place a follow -up system on the 2018 BMW 530i of Meiser.
Meiser seemed to his partner to live beyond the means of the deputy for a sheriff. With the BMW, Monguguia said, Meiser led an infiniti and built a personalized Ford truck.
“He just said that everything was on credit,” Monguguia told internal investigators.
On the morning of April 30, 2024, detectives from internal affairs have queue from his home in Lancaster at a service station in Valence, the report said. He parked next to a red SUV. Someone in the driver’s seat held him a bag, according to the report.
Meiser led to Muchiia’s apartment and the two carpools in the prison in the Many’s truck. In the parking lot, Meiser unlocked a police car and put something in the trunk before entering the prison, the report said.
The detectives searched the police car. Inside a SPROUTS grocery bag, there were two pringles tubes. The blocks of plastic plastic of black tar heroin – 1,128 pounds, indicate the report.
Meiser, apparently ignoring the search, asked a colleague to drive the police car in the secure area of the prison, according to the report. “I just wanted the radio to bring if you came because I am lazy. LOL, ”he wrote in a text message cited in the report.
Munguia told internal investigators that it was different from Meising to ask for a favor from the deputy, that Meiser “hated”. The deputy said to Meiser that he was not in prison and could not do it.
After their quarter of work, Munguia and Meiser left the prison field in the Mongguia truck when a police car arrested them. Munguia remembers having thought that it was a training exercise or a joke. Then, the Sheriff deputies ordered them to go out under the threat of a weapon.
“Oh S—,” said Meiser, according to Munguia. “Are they serious?”
In the Meiser bag, internal detectives found two envelopes containing $ 15,000, according to the report. The detectives seized an additional $ 10,500 from his sock drawer after having served a mandate at home.
Meiser refused to speak with the investigators.
In his interview with domestic affairs, Munguia said that there were signs with hindsight that Meiser had become too close to the men on which he was supposed to investigate.
“How vocal he was with the detainees. Their report – well, what we thought of being relationships, “said Munguia. “Obviously, (it was) more than that.”
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