More inmates accused of trying to smuggle methamphetamine into Riverside County jail

Three people were arrested in connection with what the sheriff's department called a scheme to smuggle drugs into a Riverside County jail in Murrieta.

The county sheriff's department announced Friday night that it intercepted two attempts to smuggle methamphetamine into the Cois Byrd Detention Center.

Deputies served a search warrant on a residence in Yucca Valley and arrested Maritza Hernandez, 43, on suspicion of conspiring to furnish narcotics to a person in a correctional facility.

Two men who were already in custody at the Murrieta facility were also accused in the scheme: Jose Martinez, 35, and Richard Carrasco, 28.

The department previously announced two other similar operations: one in January in which four people were arrested, accused of trying to smuggle narcotics into a jail, and another in December in which nine were arrested. All three of the cases involved the jail in Murrieta, and the December arrests also involved the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside.

The arrests come after the sheriff's department reported in 2022 the highest number of deaths in its jails since such records were made public decades ago. Sheriff Chad Bianco has publicly blamed most of those 19 deaths, and many since, on a surge of drugs smuggled into the jails. But the department has not publicly released complete coroner's reports detailing the causes of death for all the deceased.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta opened an ongoing civil rights investigation of the department after the surge of jail deaths and other in-custody deaths was reported.

And several deputies have been arrested or convicted on criminal charges recently. One former deputy was charged with possessing a hallucinogenic for sale at the Murrieta jail. Another is charged with being in possession of more than 500,000 fentanyl pills. And a former deputy was sentenced last week to five years in prison after pleading guilty to an extortion scheme in which he compelled women on the department's house arrest program to send him sexually explicit photos or videos.

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: Sheriff: Inmates tried to smuggle meth into Riverside County jail