Four arrested after trying to smuggle drugs into Riverside County jail, sheriff says

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department arrested four people last week suspected of trying to smuggle narcotics into the county's jail in Murrieta, the department reported.

It's the second time within months investigators have said they busted up such a scheme.

Deputies served search warrants in Hemet on Jan. 26, seizing three handguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, $13,000, a little more than 2 grams of methamphetamine, 14 grams of cocaine, 16 grams of heroin and evidence of check fraud.

The department ultimately arrested four people, one who was already in custody at the Cois Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta. As of Monday, they had been booked but none had been formally charged by the district attorney.

Marcos Lares, 22, of Hemet, was in possession of an unregistered firearm and accused of providing narcotics to a person in correctional facility, according to the department. He was released on $30,000 bail on Jan. 27.

Carlos Vitela, 21, is accused of conspiring to smuggle narcotics into a correctional facility. He has been in custody at the Murrieta jail on a murder charge for about a year.

Peyton Conner, 19 of Hemet, is accused of selling narcotics while armed and possessing an unregistered firearm. He was released on $25,000 bail, on Jan. 27.

Ruth Vitela, 49 of Hemet, was arrested for petty theft and released with a citation.

In late December, a group of nine people were arrested and accused of what appears to be an unrelated scheme to smuggle narcotics into both the Murrieta jail and the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside. In reporting both alleged smuggling schemes, the department mentioned the use of a Tek-84 scanning device. It's unclear if the equipment is new and what role it played in the investigations, and the department did not immediately respond to The Desert Sun's request for comment.

A company called Tek84 markets scanning equipment to jails and prisons that it says can detect items hidden in body cavities or inside clothing. They look similar to scanners used in airports.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco's jails have experienced an unprecedented surge in deaths of incarcerated people in recent years, and Bianco has publicly said drug use in the jails is largely to blame. The sheriff's department reported 19 deaths in its jails in 2022 and 13 last year, while it had averaged about seven deaths a year going back decades.

Federal civil lawsuits related to the deaths have mounted over the past year against the sheriff's department, with relatives of the dead claiming not enough is being done to protect the incarcerated from violence and narcotic use in the secured facilities. And California Attorney General Rob Bonta opened an ongoing civil rights investigation of the department last year, citing in part a concerning rise in in-custody deaths in the county.

Christopher Damien covers public safety and the criminal justice system. He can be reached at christopher.damien@desertsun.com or follow him at @chris_a_damien.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Four accused of trying to smuggle drugs into Riverside County jail