A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy has admitted trying to smuggle a pound of heroin into the North County Correctional Facility in Castaic on behalf of the Mexican Mafia, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Thursday, July 10.

Michael Meiser, 40, of Lancaster pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possession with an intent to distribute as part of a plea agreement signed in June, according to the announcement. The former deputy now faces a sentence of five to 40 years in federal prison.

Meiser was swept up as part of a more than two-year investigation by the FBI and the Sheriff’s Department’s Major Crimes Bureau into a “sophisticated drug smuggling operation involving Mexican Mafia associates inside the County jail system,” according to a prior release by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

He had been with the department for about four years at the time of his arrest in 2024, records showed.

The broader probe led to the county grand jury indictment of 18 individuals, including Meiser, in January. A federal grand jury then indicted Meiser separately on two felony charges in April.

The plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office covers only those charges. A federal gun charge was dropped as part of the deal.

Three additional felony charges are still pending against Meiser in the Los Angeles County case, according to the Superior Court’s website. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in January.

“Corruption and criminal activity will not be tolerated in our justice system — especially within our jails,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in February. “Ensuring that our correctional facilities remain secure and free of illicit drugs is crucial to public safety. Those entrusted with upholding the law must be held to the highest standards, and we will aggressively prosecute those who betray that trust.”

Though the county’s indictment suggests Meiser may have smuggled drugs into the jail on multiple occasions, the deputy’s guilty plea in the federal case is related specifically to an incident in April 2024.

The FBI and the Sheriff’s Department were already monitoring Meiser when one of his relatives received a suspicious $1,500 payment via Cash App on April 24, 2024. Six days later, investigators surveilling Meiser watched as he picked up a package from a woman parked at a Valencia gas station. Meiser backed his BMW up to a parked SUV, took a plastic grocery bag from the woman inside and then placed it in his trunk.

Later that day, he carpooled to work with another deputy and slipped past the security checkpoint at NCCF without any issues. Once inside the parking lot, Meiser took something from his backpack and stashed it in the trunk of a LASD radio car. He then placed his backpack inside the other deputy’s truck and walked to the jail’s gym.

Meiser was seen talking with inmates associated with the Mexican Mafia later that day.

The Sheriff’s Department investigators stopped Meiser as he attempted to leave at the end of his shift and arrested him. In Meiser’s backpack, they found $15,000 in two white envelopes, a loaded handgun, Meiser’s badge and his sheriff’s identification. A search of the radio car uncovered two Pringles cans with roughly a pound of heroin stashed beneath the chips.

Meiser originally caught the attention of investigators probing the broader drug smuggling scheme after he was caught on camera throughout early 2024 talking with an inmate and alleged Mexican Mafia member, Jackie Triplett, through the bars of his cell, according to a the county grand jury indictment.

At one point that February, Triplett, while speaking to an associate on the phone, paused when asked how much to money to send to someone, walked away from the phone, spoke to Meiser for six minutes and then returned to the call to answer the question, according to court filings.

Monitored calls between Triplett and others that same day included coded language about picking up Los Angeles Dodgers tickets (which investigators say meant picking up drugs); the cost of white and black Jordans (methamphetamine and heroin, respectively); and a discussion about concealing the drugs in a container of chips before a drop-off. Another call stated the person picking up the drugs had a “side job” and might be wearing a “costume.”

A day after the series of calls in February, county prosecutors allege cameras caught Meiser removing plastic bags from the trunk of a car and then later passing a yellow inmate property bag, bedroll and a basic hygiene kit to Triplett, according to the indictment.

The inmate, after being escorted from his cell by Meiser, was seen “taking unknown items from his pants/boxers and handing it to the inmates in the dayroom,” prosecutors alleged.

Triplett, who has been charged with more than 20 felonies, including extortion and conspiracy, also pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in January.