Drug-Possession Case Involves 74-Year-Old Man

Investigation continued Tuesday into the arrest of three people--including a 74-year-old man and his 25-year-old girlfriend--on suspicion of methamphetamine and marijuana possession.

The third person in custody is also suspected of possessing explosives, Costa Mesa police said.

Police seized three kilograms of suspected methamphetamines and 30 pounds of high-grade marijuana during the arrests Thursday evening at a Costa Mesa home. Information on the arrests was not immediately made public.

Police set a value of $390,000 on the drugs. They also found $23,000 in cash, blasting caps and one dynamite-style bomb, said Sgt. Tom Boylan of the narcotics investigation unit.

The arrests were part of a three-year drug trafficking investigation by police and U.S. Customs authorities.

The suspects, Michael Patrick Marvich, 74, Tina Marie Anderson, 25, and Collin Lee Quick, 51, were arrested at Marvich’s home in the 2600 block of Canary Drive, where all three resided.

Police said it is rare to find people in their 70s involved in drug-related cases.

“We’ve had some big-time (drug-dealing) suspects in their 50s,” said one officer. “But as far as I know, this is the first one we’ve had that’s much older than that.”

A neighbor of the three, who asked not to be identified, was surprised by Marvich’s arrest.

“He looks like an old man. He has gray hair and he is very plain, just like any old grandpa,” said the neighbor, a nine-year resident of Canary Drive. “He was very (unsuspicious), in my opinion.”

Police were tight-lipped Tuesday about the arrests, saying the investigation was continuing.

Only Quick is being charged with possession of explosives, Boylan said. He said the bomb that officers seized was “bigger than a stick of dynamite.”

Boylan said blasting caps--the type commonly used in construction and demolition projects--also were confiscated from Quick, who was being held at the California Institute for Men in Chino on suspicion of violating parole.

Marvich and Anderson, whom police said were boyfriend and girlfriend, have been released on $25,000 bail each. Quick’s relationship to the two was unclear. Arraignment is pending for all three.

Marvich has owned the house where the arrests took place for several years, said Boylan. Both Quick and Anderson lived in the home with Marvich, he said, but he did not know how long they had been there.

Marvich’s house, which backs up to a country club, is at the end of a quiet residential street filled with large tract homes.

Boylan would not comment on the involvement of U.S. Customs authorities except to say that it “has something to do with smuggling.”

He also would not give details of the 8 p.m. arrests, saying only that the home had been under surveillance by officers and that the drugs were stored at the house.