Santa Barbara – As if Anthony Solis, 29, didn’t have enough legal trouble pursuant to his alleged involvement in the March 2013 torture and murder of rival gang member Anthony Ibarra, he has a girlfriend making his life even more complicated.
Solis, currently residing in Santa Barbara County Jail pending his trial on charges of murder, torture, and conspiracy in the Ibarra case, is entitled to receive postcards from friends and family. But when staff on the Sheriff’s Jail Classification Unit intercepted a postcard addressed to Solis that was, according to SBSD Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, “laced” with methamphetamine “before it was delivered to Solis at his housing unit within the jail”, an investigation into the source of the mailing began.
The tracing and surveillance of Solis’ incoming mail intensified for nearly a full month as the jail staff coordinated with the SBSD Gang and Narcotics Unit and determined that Banesa Gutierrez, 25, was the correspondent and source of the illicit mailings. On December 17th a search warrant upon Gutierrez and her residence was executed, revealing, as detailed by Hoover in her report to the media, “a small amount of marijuana, two grams of methamphetamine, methamphetamine smoking pipes”. Further evidence of drug use and trafficking was found in Gutierrez’s bedroom which she shared with her two daughters, age 3 and 5, with all of the drug materials “accessible to both children as it was stored within a low-lying piece of furniture and mixed in with items that were used by the children.”
Banesa Gutierrez
Pursuant to those findings, Santa Barbara County Child Welfare Services were brought into the case and a Drug Endangered Children investigation began as Gutierrez was arrested and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on charges of possessing methamphetamine, sales of methamphetamine, conspiracy to commit a felony, child endangerment, and attempting to bring narcotics into a custodial facility. Her bail was set at $100,000, while Solis had an additional bail of $25,000 imposed pursuant to the conspiracy and smuggling charges.
Both Gutierrez and Solis remain in custody, while detectives are engaged in what Hoover describes as “further investigation to determine if this case was committed for the benefit of, or in association with a criminal street gang.
Photos: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
Read more:
Lompoc Record: Woman arrested for smuggling drugs into Jail
Noozhawk: Defendant, girlfriend accused of smuggling drugs
KSBY: Woman arrested after allegedly trying to smuggle drugs
