Attorneys for a deputy accused of smuggling heroin into Castaic jail applied for and received an order granting more time for a sentencing hearing that had been scheduled for Thursday.
Former sheriff’s Deputy Michael Meiser, a Lancaster resident, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to one count of possession with intent to distribute, according to a news release Thursday from the Department of Justice.
DOJ officials previously indicated Meiser was expected to receive a mandatory minimum of five years and a maximum of 40, according to a July 10 news release.
There have been requests for a continuance due to subsequent plea negotiations, the most recent delay appears to be a scheduling conflict for Meiser’s counsel, according to federal court records.
In April 2024, Meiser conspired with inmates who are known gang members to smuggle drugs into the jail — part of the Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center complex — in exchange for cash and payments via the Cash App digital wallet that inmates sent to one of Meiser’s relatives, according to the plea agreement.
The center, which is one of the largest jails in the nation, houses approximately one-third of L.A. County’s custodial population, more than 4,600 inmates, based on the most recent estimate from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. It has been the target of several LASD investigations recently due to suspected drug-smuggling activity.
Meiser shared a detailed admission of his role in the jail’s drug-smuggling operation with his plea agreement, sharing an example of a pickup.
A relative of Meiser’s received a digital payment, then Meiser drove to a Valencia gas station, where two women who were associated with the narcotics source handed Meiser a bag with the drugs and $15,000 more in cash inside — Meiser’s payment from the inmates, according to his confession that detailed the incident leading to his arrest.
“Later that day, Meiser took the grocery bag and put it into his green backpack, which also contained his loaded handgun, before driving to a fellow LASD deputy’s apartment complex,” per the plea agreement. “Once there, Meiser, with his green backpack in tow, got into that deputy’s truck and headed to the jail in Castaic. The other deputy drove his truck into the jail with Meiser in the passenger seat and parked the vehicle in the jail’s parking lot, which was past the jail’s initial security checkpoint.”
Investigators later recovered the narcotics in the truck of the other deputy, who was not believed to be a suspect, per federal records.
Meiser, who remains released on bail, is now due back in court Sept. 10 for sentencing.
