A Lake County Jail employee is facing federal charges after allegedly taking a bribe to sneak in a cell phone for a street gang member charged with racketeering.
According to a probable cause affidavit unsealed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond, FBI agents involved in the racketeering case learned that one of the defendants, Julian Rebeles, 24, of Hammond, took on a leadership role for the gang as he’s awaited trial at the Lake County Jail and has talked about “silencing” government witnesses.
Agents began monitoring his calls from the jail and heard him arrange for his girlfriend, Ellisa Salazar, 22, of Griffith, to pay someone $1,000 to sneak a cell phone into the jail for Rebeles, documents said.
Agents followed Salazar on Feb. 2 to the Meijer store in Merrillville, where they watched her hand items to a man in a silver Chevrolet Spark, documents said. They pulled the vehicle over after the meeting and learned the driver was David Victor, 23, of Merrillville, who has worked at the jail since October.
Victor told the FBI that Rebeles had slipped him some notes asking for the phone and saying he would pay $1,000, court documents said. All three were arrested and made their initial appearance Thursday. Salazar and Victor were released on a $20,000 bond. Rebeles was already ordered held without bond in the racketeering case.
