Prison cooks suspected in contraband smuggling ring

The FBI is investigating a suspected contraband smuggling ring inside an Imperial Valley state prison involving supervisor cooks and inmates, according to search warrants filed this month in San Diego federal court.

The warrants are for two cellphones found recently in the cells of inmates at Calipatria State Prison, a male facility north of Brawley.

The same prison was at the center of a smuggling ring last year. A supervising drug counselor there was accused of smuggling heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and cellphones into the prison on multiple occasions in 2015.

The new FBI investigation links the inmates to the cooks via cellphone communications and thousands of dollars in wire transfers, according to the search warrant affidavits.

One phone was found Nov. 15 on a mattress in the cell of Marquis Newsome, according to the court documents. Phone records show he and supervising cook Sara Estella Gutierrez communicated more than 2,500 times between May and September — mostly via electronic messages — and nearly 4,000 times in October and November on a different phone number, according to the affidavit.

The messages indicate that Newsome, who works in the same dining area as Gutierrez, fathered her newborn child, the affidavit states.

The messages discuss moving contraband inside the prison, include drugs and cellphones, according to the affidavit.

“.B.a.b.e … .W.h.e.n. .u. .g.o.n.n.a. .s.e.l.l. .p.h.o.n.e.s.?. .I ..m. .h.a.v.i.n.g. .t.o. .g.e.t. .i.n.t.o. .m.y. .s.a.v.i.n.g.s.,” Gutierrez wrote Newsome in October, according to the affidavit.

Newsome replied he was going to sell one this week and use Mexican inmates to do it, the court records state.

Gutierrez’s brother, Pedro Israel Gutierrez, another supervisory cook, is also implicated in the contraband ring, as is former supervisory cook Ricardo Rene Ibarra, the records state.

Investigators are also seeking evidence on a cellphone seized from inmate Karl Drew’s locker on Aug. 3. The phone was hidden within a photo album, according to the affidavit.

Drew works in the kitchen under Sara Gutierrez, the records state.

A series of wire transfers in 2015 show Drew’s sister sent $4,100 to the Gutierrez siblings and others, according to the affidavits.

Other inmate family members also wired similar funds, the records state.

Publicly available court records do not indicate any arrests have been made in the investigation.

An official with the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation declined to discuss the case or the status of the cooks’ employment, citing the ongoing investigation.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Davis writes from the San Diego Union-Tribune