A drug investigation in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, ended on Thursday, November 5, 2026, with two people in the county jail and about a quarter pound of methamphetamine seized from a vehicle that deputies stopped after watching it make a return trip to Milwaukee, according to reporting by WTAQ-WLUK based on information from the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Office and the county's Metro Drug Unit.
Source: WTAQ-WLUK via Duke FM
The two people arrested were identified as Charles Zitzer, 37, and Stacey Tadych. Both were being held at the Manitowoc County Jail on felony drug-related charges, the report said. The specific formal charges had not been detailed in the initial reporting, and the allegations have not been tested in court. Both are presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove the charges.
How the investigation built: a tip, a parole record, and a watched trip to Milwaukee
The arrests stemmed from an investigation conducted by the Metro Drug Unit, the multi-agency drug task force serving the Manitowoc County area. According to the report, authorities received information that Zitzer was involved in the distribution of drugs in Manitowoc County — the allegation that put him under surveillance in the first place.
Zitzer's background added a second legal dimension to the stop. The report said he was on federal parole following his release from federal custody in connection with a prior drug-related investigation that had itself been conducted by the Metro Drug Unit. That means the same unit that investigated him before was the unit watching him again, and that a new arrest can carry consequences in the federal system on top of any new state charges.
On Thursday, investigators conducted surveillance of Zitzer and Tadych as they traveled to Milwaukee, the state's largest city, roughly an hour and a half to the south along the Lake Michigan shoreline corridor. Milwaukee is the metropolitan source city investigators in smaller Wisconsin counties most often watch when they believe drugs are being brought back for local distribution, because the trip can be made and returned from within a single day.
The stop: K-9 Knox alerts, and deputies find the meth
It was the return leg that deputies acted on. Upon the pair's return, the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Office conducted a traffic stop of the vehicle. During the stop, a sheriff's K-9 named Knox alerted on the vehicle — the signal a trained detection dog gives when it picks up the odor of narcotics it is trained to find.
Source: WTAQ-WLUK via Duke FM
After the alert, deputies searched and located approximately one-quarter pound of methamphetamine, along with drug distribution related paraphernalia, the report said. A quarter pound is about 113 grams — far above the amount officers usually describe as personal use, which is why investigators treat a seizure of this size, packaged alongside distribution paraphernalia, as evidence of selling rather than simple possession.
Why this matters in Manitowoc County
Manitowoc County sits on Wisconsin's Lake Michigan shore between Green Bay and Milwaukee, and its drug cases repeatedly follow the pattern alleged here: information about a local distributor, a supply run to a larger city, and a stop on the way back into the county. Methamphetamine remains one of the most persistent drugs in rural and small-city Wisconsin enforcement, and a quarter-pound seizure is significant for a county of this size because it represents stock intended for many individual sales, not a single user's supply.
For Punjabi and other immigrant truck drivers and warehouse and factory workers who live and work across the upper Midwest, cases like this one are also a reminder of how these stops work: a surveillance investigation can turn an ordinary drive home into a felony arrest, and a passenger can face the same felony exposure as the driver when drugs are found in a shared vehicle. Tadych's exact alleged role has not been detailed by authorities, and readers should not assume one — the initial report groups both occupants together as held on felony drug-related charges.
Everything in this report is what investigators allege. Zitzer and Tadych were reported held on felony drug-related charges; formal charging decisions are made by prosecutors, and both are presumed innocent unless the charges are proven in court.
What happens next
The next steps run on two tracks. In state court, prosecutors in Manitowoc County will decide the formal felony charges, and both defendants will make initial appearances where bail and conditions of release are set. On the federal track, Zitzer's reported parole status means federal authorities can separately review whether the arrest violates the conditions of his release from federal custody — a process that can return a person to federal prison without waiting for the outcome of the new state case. Authorities have not announced a court date in the initial reporting, and Awaaz Punjab will update this story when charging documents are filed.