An Ely State Prison employee was arrested in a drug bust Saturday night.
The Nevada Department of Corrections Office of the Inspector General and Nevada Department of Public Safety Investigative Division completed a month long investigation. The multi-jurisdictional team also seized a significant amount of meth keeping it from being smuggled into Ely State Prison.
Investigators, with the help of Nevada Highway Patrol as well as the White Pine and Eureka County Sheriff’s Offices, arrested Rodolfo Cruz Pinedo, 62, and Ana Mirayhot Denis, 22, as they were handing off the drugs in a parking lot of a business in Ely.
Pinedo had been working as a food service manager at the Ely State Prison since October 2016.
Investigators seized more than 100 grams of methamphetamine and approximately 3 grams of heroin.
Pinedo and Denis were booked into the White Pine County Sheriff’s Public Safety Building and charged with trafficking a controlled substance 28 grams or more, two charges of possession with the intent to sell and two charges of furnishing controlled substance to state prisoner.
Denis had an additional two charges of transporting a controlled substance.
Bail was set at $250,000 for Pinedo and $500,000 for Denis.
