Eideard

Henry Marin was assigned to provide courthouse security, but in 2010 prosecutors say the Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy strayed.

He poked his head out of his courtroom doors, according to an indictment, and spotted a woman who was there to sneak him a package. Marin waved her over. The woman told him she had been instructed to hide the special delivery inside a burrito.

“OK … no problem,” the deputy said as he allegedly accepted the hand-off.

Inside that bean-and-cheese burrito was heroin that prosecutors say the deputy intended to smuggle into the courthouse jail.

On Wednesday, Marin, 27, surrendered to fellow deputies at the sheriff’s South Los Angeles station. He pleaded not guilty to charges of bringing drugs into a jail and conspiracy to commit a crime.

The charges against him are the latest in a string of prosecutions and internal affairs investigations that have targeted corrupt sheriff’s deputies and other department staff for delivering contraband behind bars, and helping fuel a lucrative drug trade behind bars.

Three sheriff’s guards have been convicted and a fourth fired in recent years for smuggling or attempting to smuggle narcotics into jail for inmates…

In Marin’s case, prosecutors allege that at least two other unnamed individuals conspired with him. According to the indictment, one of those individuals contacted the other to discuss using a deputy to get narcotics into the Airport Courthouse jail…

How do you think drugs get into any jail in the country? Homing pigeon?

You can only carry illegal substances into a lockup via folks who are there via established procedures: visitors, staff and law enforcement. The latter two are most often used as mules because they’re most likely to have experience with bribes in the first place.

San Antonio — Bexar County authorities Monday night arrested a man accused of posing as a sheriff’s deputy in order to live for free at a Northeast Side apartment.

Joe Luis Gonzales, 46, was being held without bail in Bexar County Jail on one count of impersonating a public servant and another of contempt of court for failing to pay child support.

Authorities said Gonzales filled out an application March 6 for a courtesy officer position and signed a lease to live rent-free at the Artisan at Salado Falls Apartments in the 3700 block of Binz-Engleman Road. It’s a common practice for deputies and officers to pay subsidized rent or none at all in exchange for performing security duties, according to authorities.

Gonzales wore a sheriff’s office uniform, carried a gun and had a deputy’s badge when he applied for the apartment, according to an arrest warrant affidavit…

Deputy Chief Dale Bennett said it didn’t appear the apartment complex called the county to confirm Gonzales’ employment. Recently, a resident attempted to file a complaint against him with Bexar County, Bennett said.

“We realized that this guy’s not an employee of ours,” he said.

Not a bad deal for coppers in South Texas. As long as someone checks to see if they’re real.

Har.