Santa Barbara – The joys of parenting are boundless, but none of them involve exposing small children to the world of illegal drug sales activity or proximity to loaded firearms.
That eternal verity seems to have been brazenly ignored by Juan Manuel Cisneros Gavia, a 41-year old father and resident of Santa Barbara. Gavia, as a result of his entrepreneurial endeavors in the illicit trade of methamphetamine, had been under surreptitious investigation by the Santa Barbara Police Department Narcotics Bureau for “several weeks”, according to SBPD Public Information Officer Sgt. Riley Harwood’s report to the media.
Police display confiscated guns
As the target of a multi-week investigation into the possibility that Gavia—perhaps unable to distinguish between the engrossing fiction of television’s award-wining Breaking Bad and the realities of real-world consequences attached to the conduct portrayed on that show—became the object of a search warrant and police surveillance in the early evening hours of September 9th when he was observed conducting what Harwood described as “two hand-to-hand drug transactions”.
When Gavia later drove away from his home, he was contacted in a presumptive “traffic stop”, during which time his residence was searched pursuant to the warrant. The product of that search was significantly incriminating, yielding nearly ten ounces of methamphetamine packaged for sale, .5 grams of heroin, and $3,000 in currency. Along with the illicit inventory, detectives also located firearms “staged in the premises”, all of which were observed to have been accessible to the six children residing in the home.
Police also display meth that they confiscated
With little likelihood that he’ll be nominated for Father of the Year, Gavia was booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on charges of possession of methamphetamine for sale, possession of heroin for sale, being armed with a firearm in the commission of a drug offense, and child endangerment. His bail was set at $100,000.
Photos: Courtesy Santa Barbara Police Department, Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
Read more:
Noozhawk: SB Man arrested on Narcotics, weapons charges
KCOY: Endangered children leads to SB arrest
