Kern County high school security officer pleads guilty to selling explosives on Instagram

A Kern County high school security officer pleaded guilty Monday to making explosives with a student and selling them on social media, according to federal prosecutors.

Angelo Jackson Mendiver, 27, who worked as a campus security supervisor for Arvin High School in the town outside Bakersfield about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to “conspiring to engage in manufacturing and dealing in explosive materials and mailing explosive devices, as well as making false statements to FBI agents,” U.S. Atty. Phillip A. Talbert said in a news release.

The Bakersfield resident used Instagram to sell explosives and worked with an underage male student in Arvin.

A search of Mendiver’s residence on June 1 resulted in the seizure of about 500 pounds of explosives and explosive materials, officials said. Another 500 pounds of explosives were seized from the student’s residence. Items used to make explosives were also found at both houses.

Mendiver sent a photo of an explosive device called a titanium salute as well as two videos of a homemade explosive in an Instagram message to the boy, authorities said.

Mendiver is scheduled to be sentenced April 1 and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.