Photo: Dylan Sulit-Swalley
Santa Barbara – Being busted with record-breaking jailhouse contraband is one of the more bizarre arrests on record.
At first blush, it appeared to involve a typical case of a Santa Barbara County Jail inmate in possession of a prohibited item. It’s not uncommon for new arrestees to enter the jail with a small amount of drugs hidden somewhere in their street clothing or on their person.
In and on him
Therefore, to prevent contraband from entering the jail, officers routinely relieve all new arrivals of their clothing and searched thoroughly.
But the case of 30-year-old Santa Barbara resident Dylan Sulit-Swalley appears to be anything but routine. He was the subject of specific interest on the night of July 31st. Then the jail’s Classification Unit gathered information that the suspect stored illegal narcotics in his housing unit.
With a search detail and strategy in place, custody staff removed Sulit-Swalley from his housing unit, whereupon he was “thoroughly searched.”
That search of his person yielded contraband inside his body cavities and under his cell floor drain amounting to “the largest seizure of contraband in Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Custody history” and included –
- A cellphone with charger;
- a USB Apple charger block with USB cable;
- a vape cigarette;
- two vials of THC concentrate;
- three full vape cartridges;
- one cigarette lighter;
- two heroin-filled syringes;
- 31 Adderall pills;
- 3 buprenorphiine pills;
- 8.7 gdrams of tobacco;
- 4 grams of methamphetamine;
- 4.4 grams of heroin;
- “several suspected Ecstacy pills”;
- two drill bits;
- one large rubber band tie-off;
- one piece of foil used to heat heroin.
As a result, Sulit-Swalley remains in custody on a no-bail parole hold. Certainly he now faces charges of bringing drugs into the jail and possession of controlled substances for sale.
Photos: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking, Santa Barbara County Sheriffs
