A woman was detained along with three other people after a drug smuggling investigation identified her as someone allegedly bringing drugs into jail via mail, according to a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department statement issued on Thursday, April 25.
Sheriff’s deputies launched an investigation in February into a gang of inmates who were working with someone outside the facility to smuggle drugs into the jail via the United States Postal Service, according to Thursday’s statement. According to the sheriff’s statement, jail officials intercepted many mail containing drugs.
Several suspects were identified for smuggling fentanyl, heroin, PCP, and methamphetamine into the jail, according to a news release.
On Wednesday, April 24, a search warrant was served at the 46000 block of Clinton Street in Indio.
During the search, authorities arrested Melissa Troncoso, 32, of Indio, after discovering various pieces of evidence consistent with facilitating and smuggling narcotics into the jail, according to a sheriff’s news release.
Troncoso was charged with possessing and selling methamphetamine, heroin, and concentrated cannabis, smuggling narcotics into a correctional facility, and conspiring to smuggle narcotics into a correctional facility, according to a statement released on Thursday. Some of the evidence discovered included 4.5 ounces of methamphetamine, 3.5 ounces of heroin, and 6 ounces of pure cannabis.
According to the statement released on Thursday, Eric Guzman, 26, Christian Kong, 33, and Daniel Mendez, 30, were also arrested on suspicion of conspiring to bring narcotics into a correctional facility.
Deputies claimed in a news release that all three were Indio residents who were already in detention on unrelated counts.