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Very large and sophisticated mushroom growing operation out of business
By Hempology | February 7, 2008
Chico Enterprise-Record, CA
31 Jan 2008
Karen McIntyre
160 POUNDS OF HALLUCINOGENIC MUSHROOMS SEIZED IN CORNING DRUG BUST
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 one-eighth-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
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