Springfield security agency raided by police for guns and drugs
Springfield MO June 2 2018Â Against the advice of his attorney, the owner of a Springfield security firm is speaking out about a police raid on his business.
An Ozarks law enforcement task force raided Southern Missouri Judicial Services, or SMOJS, last week, taking drugs and guns, according to court records.
Tim Brenner said of course they did.
According to Brenner, dogs can’t be trained to sniff drugs using peanut butter — they need the real stuff.
“Everybody knows we have narcotics here,” Brenner said.
Brenner said SMOJS has a permit from a state agency that allows his employees to handle narcotics.
Brenner said the law enforcement agencies who searched his business for five hours know this.
The lead agency was the Combined Ozarks Multi-jurisdictional Enforcement Team, or COMET, a task force that Brenner was once assigned to.
A spokesman for COMET said Brenner worked there for four months in 2004. Brenner claims he worked there for more than a year and quit in 2006.
Brenner said COMET should know his business is allowed to handle marijuana, and such an oversight would not have been made when he was working with COMET more than a decade ago.
“I’m really disappointed in the system,” Brenner said, adding that news of the May 24 raid will hurt his business.
When asked about a baggy containing a crystal substance seized by COMET, Brenner explained that was a pre-workout mix from one of his employees.
His employees aren’t allowed to handle drugs other than marijuana, Brenner said. Marijuana seized by his employees has later been used to train dogs at SMOJS.
SMOJS employees have seized marijuana as part of their job, Brenner said, and that marijuana is later used to train dogs.
Brenner said SMOJS has 12 dogs, some of which have been used in schools to sniff for guns.
Brenner believes his business was raided all because there was a situation between some employees who were trying to get each other in trouble.
The affidavit used to obtain a search warrant references interviews with three former employees who described drugs being held in a secretive evidence room at SMOJS.
Brenner declined to show the News-Leader the evidence room in SMOJS where the marijuana and other drug paraphernalia were reportedly kept.
Brenner said SMOJS employs about 130 people, nearly double the number he said he employed in a March 2017 interview.
About half of those employees have served in the military, Brenner said, and 15 percent currently have a peace officer’s license, including him.
SMOJS is located across the street from the Greene County Sheriff’s Office, the agency that assisted in the raid.
