Once in a while a crime story comes up that is so weird that it’s almost too strange to be real. This story was one that caught my attention. Since I come from California, more specifically near the high desert where meth labs are prominent this struck a familiar cord with me. Basically, a crazy person and a meth lab with a sprinkle of dynamite in the mix. Only the “sprinkle” of dynamite was more like hoarding 50lbs of it in a cave near his lab.
According to Bakersfield Now, the man was positioned in a remote area of Bakersfield. The FBI posted on their Instagram about the seizure of the explosives and bringing down the meth lab associated with it.
This California man, 44-year-old Matthew Henry Jacober has been sentenced to just five years in prison after pleading guilty. What did he plead guilty to? Well, illegally possessing explosives and manufacturing crystal methamphetamine. The cave that he was hoarding dynamite in held 50lbs of the explosive. That’s enough to blow up a small house, tear down large sections of brick or concrete or collapse steel structural beams. And it’s far too much to be hoarded in one place. It’s almost as if he was keeping it in case he needed to blow up the lab real quick, but the placement of the dynamite seemed a bit far for that purpose. He had it hidden in an underground cave just a short distance from the trailer where he was living. Unless the lab was sitting right on top of it, he’d have to move it to get the job done.
Five Years?
Five years seems like a light sentence when you think about it. Especially since Jacober had a prior conviction involving illegal explosives. Basically he was bared from possessing them at all, so this would have been a repeat offender. And only five years? That’s a slap on the wrist. He was also found to have 25 rounds of shotgun shells improperly stored at his residence. He pled guilty November 2025 was sentenced to five years in federal prison on February 17, 2026
