Another arrest in U.S. drug probe

Dealer is suspected of conspiring with cops in Bakersfield to sell meth and marijuana.

FBI agents arrested an accused drug dealer Thursday on suspicion of conspiring with two Bakersfield police officers to distribute methamphetamine and marijuana that the officers had seized while on patrol.

Noel Carter, 44, of Bakersfield is the latest person swept up in a federal investigation that has rocked the Kern County criminal justice system and seen former officers Damacio Diaz and Patrick Mara sent to prison for five years each.

Also, Two Kern County sheriff ’s deputies have been convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana after being accused of working with the corrupt officers.

Carter is facing myriad drug-dealing and conspiracy charges in a grand jury indictment unsealed Thursday. He faces life in prison and a $10-million fine if convicted.

Diaz and Mara seized pounds of drugs in the course of their duties as police officers, and Carter then would sell those narcotics, U.S. Atty. Phillip A. Talbert said.

On Sept. 14, a federal grand jury returned a threecount indictment charging Carter with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and marijuana, and two counts of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

The indictment alleges that from April 2012 to August 2015, Carter conspired with Mara and Diaz, who deliberately failed to submit the seized drugs into the evidence room and instead provided the stolen narcotics to Carter to sell them. The indictment also alleges that Mara took marijuana and provided it to Carter to process so it was suitable for sale.

Carter also conspired with Mara to unlawfully manufacture, process and sell marijuana for profit, according to the indictment.

The Bakersfield officers were caught in 2015 after another drug dealer they protected revealed their behavior to federal agents. It was a huge fall from grace for Diaz, who was well known in the Central Valley as being a member of the high school cross-country team portrayed in the 2015 Disney movie “McFarland, USA.”

In May 2016, Diaz pleaded guilty to possessing with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, as well as receiving bribes and making a false income tax return. In June 2016, Mara pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute, and to possess with the intent to distribute, methamphetamine.

Federal prosecutors have said no other Bakersfield officers were involved in the scandal. But former Kern County deputies Logan August and Derrick Penney last month received three years’ probation in a plea bargain with federal prosecutors after they were accused of stealing marijuana from the sheriff’s evidence storage unit. The pair voluntarily confessed to FBI agents last year that in 2014, they took marijuana and sold it.

Some of the profits from those sales went to Mara, according to court records.