A man working as a cook at the Merced County correctional facility was arrested Thursday on allegations he was smuggling in contraband.
David Louis Mace, 57, of Chowchilla was arrested around 3 p.m. Thursday at his residence and booked into the Merced County Jail on charges of bringing controlled substances into a correctional facility and allowing inmates to use controlled substances. He is being held on a $100,000 bail, said Merced County Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Delray Shelton.
Mace has been employed as a cook at the John Latarroca Correctional Center and has been with the County of Merced since 2002.
Mace’s arrest is a result of a two month investigation by the Merced County Sheriff Supervised Release Team. The investigation revealed that Mace has allegedly been bringing contraband into the jail for several months. The contraband consisted of marijuana, tobacco and cellular phones. A search of the kitchen at the John Latarroca Correctional Center yielded approximately a half pound of marijuana and tobacco.