Springfield police discovered a Springfield man was shipping more than just rocks when they served a search warrant yesterday at 39861 McKenzie Highway. Curran Millican Manzer, age 36 was home at the compound, which houses several structures, including a homestead and Taxidermy business when Springfield police and Drug Enforcement Administration agents served the search warrant and arrested Manzer yesterday morning.
The investigation began last month when Springfield police received a report that Manzer may be shipping marijuana out of state via U.S. Parcel. Assisted by Milos, a marijuana narcotics detection dog from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Springfield police conducted further inquiry and Milos alerted to packages both being shipped out of state by Manzer and received from out of state by Manzer.
Police obtained court authorization to open the packages and discovered a large fake fiberglass textured and painted rock mounted on a flat plywood board. Cutting through the board, officers discovered vacuum sealed plastic bags containing pounds of marijuana and marijuana extract in all six containers within similar large fake rocks. 143 pounds of marijuana and 5 lbs of extract with a street value estimated at nearly $1 million were found inside the six large rocks.
The inbound packages contained cash that Milos also alerted to of Marijuana too. During the course of their investigation, police allege Manzer received over $150,000 in cash shipments from out of state.
Springfield Authorities arrested Manzer who is charged with Unlawful Delivery, Possession, and Manufacture of marijuana; and a felony charge of Laundering a Monetary Instrument.
Police are continuing to investigate and served a search warrant yesterday at the Walterville area compound, where they found multiple marijuana grow sites, processing and fabrication materials and areas where they believe the boulders were created along with marijuana plants at various stages of growth.
Investigators seized business and shipping records they believe tie the interstate marijuana operation with the taxidermy business. Investigators are not revealing the destination shipping state due to the ongoing nature of the criminal investigation, but say others were arrested in connection with the marijuana and where it was shipped yesterday.