A coded message deciphered from a jail call led to the arrest of Deputy Michael Meiser for allegedly conspiring with gang members to smuggle heroin into Los Angeles County jails. Investigators discovered over a pound of heroin concealed in Pringles cans that Meiser had brought onto jail grounds. Despite the arrest, no other deputies in Operation Safe Jails were implicated, though internal reports suggested a troubling collaboration between deputies and gang leaders. Meiser has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Even after it was deciphered, the coded message from jail seemed strange. In a recorded call, a Los Angeles County inmate recited a string of numbers to a woman on the other end of the line: '84, 89, 17, 17, 31 ...'.
The exchange from April 2024 is at the heart of an arrest by sheriff's investigators of one of their own: Deputy Michael Meiser, assigned to a specialized unit that monitored gang activity.
Deputies arrested Meiser on April 30, 2024. Inside a bag that Meiser allegedly brought onto jail grounds, investigators found more than a pound of heroin hidden inside two tubes of Pringles.
Within the jails, where inmates sell heroin in tiny smears called 'papers,' that amount was worth $226,000, a sheriff's lieutenant wrote in a report.
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