Federal investigators suspected a Corona man of being a drug smuggler even before authorities said he made a hard landing in Banning last month in an airplane loaded with illegal drugs and more than $700,000 in cash, a federal complaint says.

Alex Michael Furman, 24, was charged with possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute it, according to a complaint was filed Wednesday, May 3 in U.S. District Court by James A. Breason, a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Furman on Monday appeared in federal court in Los Angeles, where he was ordered held without the opportunity to post bail, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for May 22 and arraignment for May 24, Mrozek said.

Furman had pleaded not guilty to state charges in Riverside County Superior Court, but those charges were dismissed when the federal government took over prosecution.

During Breason’s investigation, he spoke with a representative of the Air and Marine Operations Center, an agency based at March Air Reserve Base that is part of Customs and Border Protection and coordinates investigations into airborne drug-smuggling operations.

That representative told Breason that Furman had been suspected of smuggling since October, according to the complaint, which did not elaborate on that allegation.

The current case began about 1:30 p.m. April 24 when Banning police were alerted to a plane that had lost power and was going to attempt to land at Banning Municipal Airport. Police found the white Cessna on the east end of the runway, its landing gear missing, wings damaged and two of its propellers bent — but no pilot.

Officers who searched the plane for identification smelled marijuana and found a “brick” of cash, the complaint said.

Before police arrived, a slightly bloodied Furman had run to the control tower and asked someone to drive him to a hospital, the complaint said. While en route, however, Furman asked the airport employee to drop him off at a car rental company instead and said he would drive himself to the hospital.

A while later, Furman rolled up near the plane in a rented Ford Focus. When Banning police questioned him, he gave “non-responsive answers,” said he didn’t know anything about the money, said there was nothing illegal inside and declined to allow officers to search the plane, the complaint said.

Police remained suspicious and had a narcotics K-9, Timber, give the plane a sniff. Timber’s behavior changed, but Timber did not give a positive alert for drugs, the complaint said.

Investigators learned that from April 21 to 24, Furman had flown to Maryland, North Carolina, Illinois, two cities in Texas and then Thermal before landing in Banning. But the Thermal stop had not been included in Furman’s official flight plan, the complaint said.

The Air and Marine Operations Center, using technology and expertise in detecting suspicious flight patterns, is capable of tracking aircraft that lack flight plans, said Jaime Ruiz, a Border Patrol public affairs officer.

Later on the night of the crash, investigators obtained a search warrant. Inside the plane, the complaint said, they found $704,938 in vacuum-sealed packages inside two suitcases and a cardboard box containing 32 small clear glass jars containing what tests later determined was honey oil, a highly concentrated marijuana extract.

Furman was arrested and booked into the local jail, with bail initially set at $1 million. Before the feds took over prosecution, Riverside County authorities had sought to have his bail revoked, saying they could not determine how much money Furman had.