Holiday Season Meth Dealer Busted
Santa Barbara – Television Cable Network AMC’s “Breaking Bad” may be the stuff of fiction, but it’s not a far stretch from the truth when it comes to the volumes of methamphetamine being produced and marketed in The Mission City while tourists blissfully go about their holiday shopping.
Alejandro Mendibles
Clear evidence of the availability of high-powered controlled substances on the streets of Santa Barbara came on December 7th when a month-long Santa Barbara Police Department Drug Suppression Unit investigation brought to the surface Alejandro Mendibles Jr., 44, a “known gang member”, according to SBPD Public Information Officer Sgt. Riley Harwood.
Apparently doing his own holiday shopping, Mendibles pulled into the busy parking structure at State Street’s most stylish shopping center, Paseo Nuevo Mall, during the lunch hour when Friday traffic was at its peak. Unbeknownst to him, however, SBPD Detectives were doing their own kind of shopping, as they had previously obtained search warrants for Mendible’s residence and vehicles, which they generously revealed to him as they confronted him in the mall parking structure.
A search of the vehicle he was driving turned up no evidence, but they managed to arrest him in spite of that, as Mendibles was driving on a suspended license. While Mendibles was getting a free ride to Santa Barbara County Jail for a free mugshot portrait session, detectives “then executed the search warrant at his home,” Harwood reported to the media, whereupon they found “nearly a quarter-pound of methamphetamine packaged in various quantities for sale”. The drugs—valued at approximately $4000 on the retail market—were seized from the residence, along with cash in excess of $2000.
Mendibles was then booked for possession of methamphetamine for sale with his bail set at $30,000.
Some holidays are happier than others.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
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