Ex-Deputy Hid Heroin in Pringles Cans to Smuggle Into Jail

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A former Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputy was sentenced on November 5, 2026, to 67 months in federal prison for possessing more than one pound of heroin hidden inside Pringles potato chip cans that he admitted trying to smuggle into a county jail, federal prosecutors announced.

Read the U.S. Attorney's Office release: https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/former-lasd-deputy-sentenced-more-5-12-years-prison-possessing-pringles-cans-heroin

The Plea, the Judge, the Sentence

Michael Meiser, 40, of Lancaster, was sentenced by United States District Judge Fernando M. Olguin.

Meiser pleaded guilty in July 2025 to one count of possession with intent to distribute heroin.

The Deal, the Cash, the Handoff

According to his plea agreement, in April 2024, Meiser was working as an LASD deputy at the North County Correctional Facility in Castaic. He had agreed with inmates to smuggle narcotics into the jail in exchange for cash and payments through the Cash App digital wallet that inmates would arrange for Meiser and one of his relatives to receive.

On April 24, 2024, one of Meiser's relatives received $1,500 through Cash App from a person connected to an inmate and later told Meiser about it.

Six days later, Meiser drove his BMW to a Chevron station in Valencia and parked beside a Chevrolet SUV carrying two women, one of whom was associated with a jail inmate.

One of the women handed Meiser a plastic grocery bag holding two Pringles cans loaded with approximately 511 grams, or 1.1 pounds, of heroin. The bag also held two white envelopes containing a total of $15,000 in cash, which represented Meiser's payment from the inmates for smuggling the heroin into the jail.

Inside the Jail, the Search, the Arrest

Later that day, Meiser put the grocery bag into his green backpack, which also contained his loaded handgun, and rode in a fellow LASD deputy's truck to the jail in Castaic. The other deputy drove the truck into the jail with Meiser in the passenger seat and parked in the jail's parking lot, past the jail's initial security checkpoint.

Meiser then moved the bag into the trunk of an LASD radio car and placed the two heroin-containing Pringles cans, hidden in a grocery bag, under computer towers inside the trunk. By that time, he had removed the $15,000 in cash from the bag and placed it in his green backpack.

Meiser then met with an inmate who was participating in the smuggling scheme and spoke with him for several minutes.

At the end of the day, Meiser got back into the passenger seat of the other deputy's truck. LASD investigators stopped them as the truck was driven out of the jail.

Investigators arrested Meiser and searched the truck, where they found the green backpack containing the $15,000 in cash, Meiser's loaded handgun, and his badge and LASD identification. Investigators also searched the radio car's trunk and found the two heroin-containing Pringles cans.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

, the Investigation, the Prosecution

The FBI investigated this matter with assistance from LASD's Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau. Assistant United States Attorney Kathy Yu prosecuted the case.

Meiser will now serve the 67-month federal prison term imposed by the court.

Sources

U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California, "Former LASD Deputy Sentenced to More Than 5½ Years in Prison for Possessing Pringles Cans of Heroin Intended for Smuggling into Jail," news release dated November 5, 2026: https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/former-lasd-deputy-sentenced-more-5-12-years-prison-possessing-pringles-cans-heroin