-from chicoer.com-

By Karen McIntyre

CORNING — After making the biggest drug bust of its kind in county history Tuesday, Tehama Inter-agency Drug Enforcement agents displayed on Wednesday most of the 160 pounds of processed hallucinogenic mushrooms they seized from a Corning home.”This would make a pretty nice-sized salad,” TIDE Commander Vic Lacey said.

But all kidding aside, he said, the mushrooms seized are illegal and dangerous. They would have been worth at least $518,000 on the streets — enough to sell 8-ounce quantities at $25 to 20,754 customers. Lacey said he hasn’t heard of a bigger mushroom bust in the north state in at least 20 years.

“We had no idea this operation was going on anywhere around here,” he said.

Agents discovered the drugs while investigating the death of Allen Joseph Milanowski, 52, whose body was discovered Monday morning on the side of Loleta Avenue between Marguerite and Oren avenues.

Milanowski’s truck was later found parked in front of 4020 Oren Ave., and detectives approached a man who was living in the home.

“Things went downhill for him from there,” Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker said.

After seeing marijuana in the home, a search warrant was requested, and granted.

From the door, detective Richard Knox said he could see a mushroom the size of a forearm sitting on a scale. It weighed 360 grams.

Detectives went on to find a “very large and sophisticated illegal psilocybin mushroom growing and distribution operation,” according to a TIDE press release. In addition to 160 pounds of processed mushrooms, agents seized four growing marijuana plants and 10 pounds of processed marijuana with a street value exceeding $30,000. They also found $5,000 in cash, several digital electronic scales, laboratory glassware, lots of FedEx packaging and shipping materials and boxes of drugs sealed and ready to be shipped.

About 110 pounds of the mushrooms were in 340 vacuum-sealed bags. The other 50 pounds were on drying racks in a heated and ventilated room. Hundreds of spores were in petri dishes that Lacey said would grow to be about 6-inch long mushrooms in just seven to 10 days.

A man who referred to himself as Fred William Thalgott and lived in the home was taken into custody, Lacey said. After fingerprinting and interviewing the man, law enforcement found out his real name is Robert Crane Rawhouser.

The 57-year-old man’s fake name was found on receipts and other drug-related items in the home, he said.

Rawhouser is charged with possession for sales of hallucinogenic mushrooms, possession for sales of marijuana, cultivation of marijuana, maintaining a residence where illegal drugs are distributed or used and providing false information to a peace officer. He is being held without bail in the Tehama County Jail.

As it turned out, Rawhouser is a federal fugitive. Parker said a warrant was also issued for Rawhouser in 1993 from the U.S. District Count in eastern Wisconsin. His charge was failing to appear on a hallucinogenic mushroom charge.

“So we know he’s been in this business for at least 15 years,” Lacey said

Karen McIntyre is a reporter for the Red Bluff Daily News.

-from kxii.com-

By Mystic Matthews

SHERMAN, Tex. — Thousands of personal documents stolen by thieves, along with thousands of dollars in unexplained cash, was confiscated by Sherman Police. All of that and more was taken from a local motel.

Officers say they were stunned when they found thousands of personal documents, thousands of dollars in cash, and laptop computers in two motel rooms at the Hampton Inn in Sherman.

The entire bust kicked off when a motel guest called police saying they smelled marijuana coming from the next room.

When officers arrived, they found ten people, a filing cabinet, briefcases containing thousands of documents, more than $19,000 in cash, and marijuana.

The documents detectives found had lists of names, addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers. It is unclear where this information came from or how it was obtained by the suspects, all of whom were U.S. citizens, of Nigerian descent, and all with addresses in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Shaquel Nicole Alexander, Mike Tyrone Thomas Jr., Danielle Laree Johnson, and Tendeka Parirentatwa were arrested for drug charges. Two of them already had active warrants.

The other six were released but investigators say they could still face charges.

“The individuals involved couldn’t explain reasons for being in Sherman, or their reasons for having that much cash on them. They also could not show gainful employment to explain how that had that much money on them.” Sherman Police Sgt. Bruce Dawsey said.

Besides not being able to account for the cash, none of the suspects would claim ownership of the four laptops.

Sgt. Dawsey says this bust is just the beginning, and they say other law enforcement may soon join the investigation.

-from miamicountylife.com-

Four Miami County residents were arrested Monday night after the Miami County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of an argument and allegedly found marijuana and paraphernalia in a home near Denver.

Stephen Fewell, 58, was arrested for possession of marijuana, possession of paraphernalia, maintaining a common nuisance and on a Howard County warrant for contempt, according to a MCSO press release.

For more on this story, see the Jan. 30, 2008 edition of the Peru Tribune.

-from eastvalleytribune.com-

By Katie McDevitt

A suspicious car in Chandler led detectives to a secret stash of more than 4 pounds of cocaine and resulted in the arrest of three suspected drug dealers.

On Friday, police arrested Rameek Ka Shawn Brown, 27, Keith Quinton Etheridge, 24, and Russell George Martínez, 36, on suspicion of possession of narcotic drugs for sale.

“The guys were taking (cocaine) to New York, we think,” said Chandler detective Jesus Deanda in a phone interview Tuesday.

Deanda said drug dealers will sometimes come to Arizona to purchase cocaine because it’s cheaper here than in other parts of the country.

“We’re two hours away from the border, so between the border and here, there’s a price,” Deanda said.

The seized drug are worth about $15,000 in bulk in Arizona, but broken down into smaller amounts and sold on the street in New York it could have fetched about $200,000, Deanda said.

Deanda and officer Antonio Frias made the drug bust while driving in a marked patrol car about 9:30 p.m., looking for anything out of the ordinary while cruising in the area of Hamilton Place and Erie Street.

Deanda said he looked in the rearview mirror and saw an Infiniti drive away quickly. He followed the vehicle and noticed it appeared to have no visible license plate.

When he stopped the car, Deanda saw old boxes and packaging items, which he recognized as items sometimes used to transport drugs.

The detective asked to search the vehicle and discovered two “bricks” of 2.2 pounds each of cocaine wrapped in black silk socks and a plastic bag.

The drugs were hidden in the car’s back seat and middle console.

-from nbc13.com-

By Jon Paepcke

JEFFERSON COUNTY: Sheriff’s deputies make a record-breaking cocaine bust.

The bust happened Saturday on I-65 near Walker Chapel Road. Deputies seized about 265 pounds of cocaine from a tractor trailer. Authorities say it’s the largest cocaine bust ever in Jefferson County. All totaled up, Sheriff Mike Hale says the drugs are worth more than $7 million.

“This is huge,” exclaims Sheriff Hale. “I’d rate this for us this is maybe not a 10 but this is a nine and a half.”

Hale says his deputies found it hidden a secret compartment in the driver’s sleeper cab.

“The Jefferson County deputy recognized the difference and was able to look at the dimensions of the cab and recognize in fact that this was a false compartment,” says Hale.

The record bust is the county’s largest, and joins a growing list of major seizures made by the sheriff’s Highway Safety Unit. Since the group’s 2005 beginning, $20 (M) worth of drugs have been confiscated- that includes $13 (M) last year alone.

Hale says similar enforcement groups have come along way.

“Law enforcement played catchup for about five or six years,” says Hale. “Now we’re in across this country we’re in a full assault of the Mexican drug cartels that bring this stuff over.”

The county’s $7 (M) cocaine bust shatters the old record of $1.2 (M).

-from dailymail.com-

By Zack Pettit

The Boone County Sheriff’s Department arrested one man and likely will arrest others as an investigation continues into the discovery of a large amount of stolen property at a Danville pawn shop.

Police started the investigation after receiving a tip about possible stolen material located at Britton’s Gun & Pawn. The tipster said the material was from an area burglary.

Police searched the shop and found various items linked to burglaries and larcenies in 10 West Virginia counties, as well as 12 states, according to a press release from Boone County Sheriff Rodney Miller.

Because of the vast amount of property located at the business, police made the inventory available to regional law enforcement so records and crime reports could be checked, the release said.

Police recovered several guns, power tools and various other items, according to the release.

Because of the number of firearms in question, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is now involved.

The investigation began after a Danville home was burglarized on Dec. 29, the release said. Shortly afterward, police received information that some of the stolen property was at the pawn shop, according to the release.

Police arrested Jerry Wayne Messer, 25, of Julian, on Dec. 31, and charged him with transferring stolen property, nighttime burglary and grand larceny in connection with the Dec. 29 burglary, and also two transferring stolen property charges from a Nov. 9 burglary allegation, according to Miller’s release.

Messer is still incarcerated in Southwestern Regional Jail.

He and others probably will face additional charges on state and federal levels, as the investigation continues, the release said.

Madison, Danville and State Police have been working with the sheriff’s department.

The West Virginia counties involved are Boone, Cabell, Fayette, Harrison, Jackson, Lincoln, Logan, Taylor, Wayne and Wyoming, and the states in question are Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, New York, North and South Carolina, Texas, Michigan and Virginia, according to the release.

-from capitalnews9.com-

AMSTERDAM, N.Y. — Two houses were raided early Saturday morning in Amsterdam. A two month investigation ended with the arrests of two men in the McElwain and Wilson avenues area, police said.

Jorge Rivera already spent time in state prison for selling heroin. When he was arrested Saturday, he had 100 bags of the drug with a street value of about $3,000, police said.
Luis Rodriguez was arrested for selling cocaine. He had one gram and two gram bags of the drug with a total street value of about $1,000, police said. The sting was staged by about twenty-five members of the Montgomery County Task Force.
The two men are being arraigned in Amsterdam City Court.

-from sfgate.com

By Henry K. Lee

$10 Million Pot Bust, Four men arrested

Contra Costa sheriff’s narcotics investigators have arrested four men and seized 6,000 marijuana plants worth $10 million in connection with a sophisticated growing operation in homes in Oakley, Brentwood and Antioch, authorities said Friday.

Jimmy Lee, sheriff’s spokesman, said deputies searched a home on Minaret Road in Oakley on Wednesday and seized 3,000 plants. They arrested Patric Cuspard, 36, and his brother, Philip Cuspard, both of Antioch, on suspicion of cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale and tampering with electrical lines. Ricky Atkinson, 32, of Antioch was arrested for possession of marijuana.

At a home on Lakeview Drive in Brentwood, investigators arrested Daniel Davila, 36, of Antioch for cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale, tampering with electrical lines and a felon in possession of a firearm. Police seized about 2,000 marijuana plants at the home.

About 400 plants were confiscated at a home on Mt. Goethe Way in Antioch, while 900 plants and 5 pounds of marijuana were seized at a home on the 4500 block of Mirror Court in Antioch.

On Thursday, investigators arrested Ronald Spears, 51, of Oakley at a home on Sandmound Boulevard in Oakley.