Former LASD deputy sentenced to nearly 6 years in prison for attempted smuggling of Pringles cans of heroin

A former Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputy who pleaded guilty last year to attempting to smuggle heroin inside Pringles cans into a Santa Clarita Valley jail has been sentenced to five years and seven months in prison.

Michael Meiser, 40, of Lancaster, admitted in his plea agreement to receiving two Pringles cans filled with approximately 1.1 pounds of heroin, and attempting to smuggle them into the jail for $15,000.

In 2024, Meiser was working as an LASD deputy at the North County Correctional Facility in Castaic when he arranged the smuggling scheme with inmates.

Meiser met two women at a Valencia gas station, one of whom was associated with a jail inmate, and received two Pringles cans stuffed with heroin. He also received $15,000 in cash as payment from the inmates.

Meiser later placed the Pringles cans and his loaded handgun in a backpack, which he carried with him as he drove in another deputy's truck to the jail's campus. The other deputy drove his truck into the jail, with Meiser in the passenger seat, and parked it in the jail's parking lot, which was past the initial security checkpoint.

Later that day, Meiser met with an inmate participating in the smuggling scheme and spoke to him for several minutes. At the end of that day, LASD investigators stopped Meiser and the other deputy as they began driving outside the jail.

LASD investigators arrested Meiser and searched the other deputy's truck, where they found the backpack containing $15,000 in cash, Meiser's loaded handgun, his badge, and LASD identification. Investigators also found the two Pringles cans with heroin.

The FBI investigated this matter with assistance from LASD's Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau.