A Bakersfield man who hid roughly 50 pounds of dynamite in a nearby cave while manufacturing crystal methamphetamine in his travel trailer has been sentenced to five years in federal prison. Authorities said the volatile mix of explosives and meth production raised the stakes for prosecutors and for neighbors living near informal trailer sites in Kern County.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston imposed the five-year sentence Yesterday, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, which identified the defendant as 44-year-old Matthew Henry Jacober of Bakersfield. Prosecutors said Jacober pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of explosives and to manufacturing crystal methamphetamine, two federal counts that brought mandatory minimum penalties into play.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation led the investigation, working alongside the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Kern County Sheriff's Office Bomb Squad, and the Kern County Fire Department, according to FBI Sacramento, which linked to the Justice Department announcement on social media. Local bomb-squad personnel were called in because of the quantity and condition of the seized explosives.
A #Bakersfield man is sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to illegally possessing 50 pounds of dynamite that was hidden in a cave and manufacturing crystal methamphetamine.
— FBI Sacramento (@FBISacramento) February 18, 2026
He was prohibited from possessing explosives following a 2021 felony conviction for… pic.twitter.com/iXUdYQEUjO
Explosives Hidden in a Cave, Meth in the Trailer
Court documents state that in July 2025, Jacober had secreted about 50 pounds of dynamite in a cave roughly 10 to 15 feet from the travel trailer where he was living, and that agents found both finished methamphetamine and material in the process of converting from liquid to crystal during a search. Those details, along with the defendant's Nov. 24, 2025, guilty plea, appear in a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of California. The same release notes Jacober's 2021 Kern County conviction for making a destructive device without a permit.
Sentence, Statutes and Local Pattern
The plea agreement outlined the potential penalties Jacober faced. The explosives charge carries a statutory maximum of 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine, while the meth manufacturing count includes a mandatory minimum of five years and a maximum of 40 years in prison along with a potential $5 million fine. The stash of explosives and the meth-related allegations tracked with other recent Kern County incidents in which officers uncovered weapons and lab materials, underscoring public-safety concerns in foothill and trailer communities, as reported by SFGATE.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Antonio Pataca prosecuted the case, according to the Justice Department's announcement, and Jacober is slated to serve his federal sentence at a Bureau of Prisons facility yet to be determined. Court records and the DOJ release list the key milestones in the case: the guilty plea on Nov. 24, 2025, and the sentencing on Feb. 17, 2026.
