The 39-year-old Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff reportedly smuggled heroin into prisoners, according to a new report.
Law enforcement records reviewed by the LA Times claim that Deputy Director Michael Miser, who was arrested on April 30, 2024, alleges that investigators hid more than a pound of black tar heroin in two cans in prison just before he was taken into custody.
Deputy Miser, assigned to a special unit that monitored gang activity at Castatic’s North County Correctional Facility, the country’s largest prison facility, is among the 18 people charged with smuggling operations.
LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced the clarification of the charges in late February, saying he was targeting a network of criminals working with fellow Mexican mafia members to lock up drugs.
Half of the people charged are now in prison, while the other half were free citizens, Hochman said he would include Meiser.
The Mexican mafia, a syndicate of an estimated 140 incarcerated Latino gang members, assigned certain prison inmates to run a drug and terror scheme, the Times reported.
Two such inmates at North County Correctional Facility are both named in the charges: Jose Rodriguez, 47, and Jackie Triplett, 40.
Last February, federal agents intercepted a call made by two men using coded languages, including “White Jordan” and “Black Jordan,” which are thought to be phrases that designate methamphetamine and heroin.
Entrance to Pitges Detention Center, a Los Angeles County Jail complex in Castatic, including North County Correctional Facility. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
After one of these calls, the Miser Deputy Bureau passed the triplets on prison surveillance cameras and passed through the bag and bed roll.
Two months later, in April 2024, Rodriguez was recorded on the phone using a coded language, and $6,000 was transferred to Miser’s brother-in-law’s cache app. A day later, detectives from the Internal Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Security Bureau obtained a warrant to deploy the tracking device at Miser’s White 2018 BMW.
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On the morning of his arrest, investigators chased Miser from his Lancaster home to a gas station in Valencia. There, the red SUV person reportedly contains 1.128 pounds of black tar heroin wrapped in two Pringle tubes in black tar heroin.
The Times reported that heroin was worth more than $225,000 in prison.
The gun was drawn, and sheriff’s deputies stopped Miser and his partner, Vice-Chair Jose Munguia.
Inside Meiser’s Bag, detectives reportedly found an envelope holding $15,000 in cash. Later, in search of his home, authorities recovered another $10,500 in a dresser drawer.
Miser pleaded not guilty to accusations of distributing drugs to prison and conspiring to involve a gang conspiracy. His lawyers did not immediately return requests for comments made by the Times.
A smuggling hearing is scheduled for March 27th in downtown Los Angeles
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