MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — An Apple Valley man has been charged in a drug bust this week that involved large amounts of methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl.

Alphonse Latrese Herron Jr., 34, faces three first-degree counts of aggravated controlled substance crime.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension says that investigators arranged for Herron to sell five pounds of meth to an undercover agent. Investigators observed Herron going to a storage facility after making the arrangement.

After Herron made the deal with the agent, he was stopped by the Minnesota State Patrol. His vehicle, home and the storage unit were searched.

In the storage unit, investigators located a safe that was found to contain about one pound of suspected cocaine, nine points of methamphetamine, three pounds of fentanyl, over 6,000 pills suspected to contain fentanyl, a handgun and about $140,000 in cash.

According to the Dakota County Attorney’s Office, Herron admitted to selling meth, saying that he gets it from California.

“This was one of the largest seizures of illegal drugs in Dakota County’s history,” Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said. “We believe this is part of a large illegal drug smuggling operation from California. This seizure demonstrates the continuing problem of methamphetamine and fentanyl use in our community. Illegal drug use and distribution endangers public safety and all too often claims lives.”

Bail has been set at $1 million without conditions. However, as the Department of Corrections has a hold on Herron due to a 2017 conviction, even if he posted bail he would return to prison.

His next court appearance is scheduled for March 10.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Authorities in northwestern Wisconsin say a woman is in custody after a traffic stop this week turned up nearly $40,000 worth of methamphetamine.

The Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office says deputies stopped a Dodge Durango on Sunday in Edgewater, Wisconsin, as part of a drug investigation in the area.

The Durango’s driver, a 40-year-old woman From Birchwood, Wisconsin, was arrested. She is being held in the county jail on a $50,000 cash bond pending charges of drug possession and intent to make/distribute.

Investigators say a search of the Durango produced 3.3 grams of magic mushrooms, 4.1 grams of THC/marijuana, and 394 grams of methamphetamine, which has an estimated street value of $39,000.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A western Wisconsin man faces charges after authorities say a three-month investigation resulted in a seizure of drugs and a firearm.

Richard Skramstad, 58, is charged with maintaining a drug trafficking place and manufacturing, distributing or delivering cocaine and methamphetamine, according to the Dunn County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities seized 270 grams of methamphetamine as well as cocaine and hallucinogenic mushrooms during their investigation.

Skramstad is being held at the Dunn County Jail. The sheriff’s office said eight other people are also under investigation in this matter.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Authorities seized more than 20 pounds of methamphetamine, 2 pounds of cocaine and thousands of dollars while executing search warrants related to a drug investigation in the Twin Cities.

The CEE-VI Drug and Gang Task Force said it purchased 3 pounds of meth from a 41-year-old source, then searched two homes related to the case. During that search, they found 20 more pounds of meth, the cocaine and $29,000 in cash.

The source was arrested and is awaiting federal charges. WCCO typically does not name suspects before they are charged.

The task force said he was arrested in Minnesota in 2012 for controlled substance charges and deported to Mexico after serving a sentence for that crime.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Authorities arrested three people on outstanding warrants at a home in Alexandria Tuesday morning.

According to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, a 24-year-old man and a 26-year-old man each had a felony drug warrant, while a 49-year-old man had multiple warrants.

Deputies were checking a home on the 1700 block of Castle Lane Southeast “for suspected people with active arrest warrants” when they saw the 24-year-old through a screen door. He retreated into the home, and deputies waited for backup outside.

While waiting, they found the 26-year-old in a parked vehicle.

After entering the home, they found the 49-year-old in the kitchen, with 8.5 grams of methamphetamine on him. While searching, they found the 24-year-old in the attic, hiding under insulation.

The sheriff’s office said deputies found more meth, “stolen property” and three guns, including a sawed off shotgun, while executing a search warrant.

All three men were taken to Douglas County Jail for their warrants and pending charges.

“The investigation continues and other arrests are possible,” the sheriff’s office said.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Five people were arrested in northern Minnesota last week, the result of an investigation by a drug task force.

According to the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, three were arrested during a traffic stop in Itasca County Saturday. Two others were arrested in Hibbing during a search of a residence.

The arrested parties range in age from 19 to 58. The sheriff’s office said a “large quantity” of methamphetamine was seized during the traffic stop.

The arrests came after a monthlong investigation by the Lake Superior Drug & Violent Crime Task Force.

All five people arrested are awaiting criminal charges.

WCCO-TV does not typically name people arrested until they are formally charged with a crime.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The U.S. Department of Justice says that three members of the “Native Mob” gang have been sentenced to prison for distributing methamphetamine and for assault.

The three members sentenced were 32-year-old Robin Lee Lussier (“Ratchet”), 26-year-old Willard Duane Reed III (“Leftfield”) and 25-year-old Joshua Adam Hanks (“Souless”).

All three were said to be active in the gang, and prosecutors said from Dec. 1, 2015 through Jan. 1, 2019, Lussier and Reed conspired to traffic meth by the pound throughout northern Minnesota, “including but not limited to Cass Lake, Bemidji, and the Red Lake Indian Reservation.”

The justice department said that, in December 2018, Hanks (under direction by Lussier) assaulted a fellow gang member for failing to abide by the rules of the “Native Mob.”

Lussier pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 16 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release. Reed received 10 years in prison and five years of supervised release, following his guilty plea. Hanks, who also pleaded guilty, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

A decade ago, the National Gang Threat Assessment called the Native Mob one of the largest and most violent American Indian gangs in the U.S., most active in Minnesota and Wisconsin but also in Michigan, North Dakota and South Dakota. It is made up of mostly American Indian men and boys, and started in Minneapolis in the 1990s as members fought for turf to deal drugs. The Native Mob has also been active in prison.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A Scandia man faces a murder charge after he allegedly sold methamphetamine to man who died from an overdose at the Chisago County Jail.

The sheriff’s office says 51-year-old Erik Nielson was arrested in Chisago County on July 22 on a felony warrant. Video from in the squad car showed Nielson grab something from his sock or shoe and put it in his mouth. Soon after he entered the jail, he became unresponsive, and died despite life-saving efforts.

Nielson, from St. Paul, was later determined to have died from an overdose. A perforated plastic bag was also found in his stomach.

John Hofer (credit: Chisago Co. Jail)

Investigators with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension say they allegedly connected the source of Nielson’s drugs to 37-year-old John Hofer after finding a Facebook Messenger thread between the two men that appeared to lay out a drug deal. Hofer was charged Tuesday with third-degree murder, and was taken into custody Wednesday.

The sheriff’s office says the investigation is ongoing.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A career criminal will spend a decade in prison after being convicted on methamphetamine and firearm charges.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Stearns County resident Samuel Charles Skelton II, 30, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute meth and possession of firearms as a felon.

Court documents showed Skelton sold a pound of meth to an informant in late 2019, then weeks later he was arrested after being surveilled while driving from St. Cloud to the Twin Cities. Authorities say he had more than 3 pounds of meth in his BMW at the time, as well as cocaine, several pills, a scale and multiple flip phones.

Then in April, as investigators were at the scene of an overdose death in Brook Park in Pine County, Skelton pulled up to the residence. His car was soon searched, yielding bags of meth and marijuana, two handguns, two assault-style rifles and five loaded, high-capacity magazines.

After Skelton serves his prison sentence, he will have five years of supervised release.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A Hell’s Angels member was sentenced Monday to 14 years in prison after selling pounds of methamphetamine to an undercover officer and fleeing to California.

The U.S. Department of Justice District of Minnesota said that Justin Schmitz, 39, was sentenced to 168 months in prison and five years of supervised release.

According to prosecutors, Schmitz is a member of the Minnesota chapter of the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club and sold multiple pounds of high-purity methamphetamine to an undercover officer last year for around $6,000.

After he pleaded guilty to methamphetamine distribution, he absconded in August of 2020 from a treatment center. He fled to California, where he was fugitive for nearly three months before being arrested and brought back to Minnesota.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The United States Attorney’s Office has charged a 20-year-old man from Mexico with trying to smuggle methamphetamine, several firearms and dozens of armor-piercing bullets onto a flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix last week.

The criminal complaint states Kevin Alan Aguilar-Moreno checked two pieces of luggage before getting onto a Delta Airlines flight at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Oct. 29.

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TSA agents found more than two pounds of meth inside, as well as two pistols and a homemade, untraceable AR-15-style rifle. The luggage also contained 241 bullets, 39 of which were armor-piercing rounds.

Aguilar-Moreno faces a count of possessing meth with intent to distribute, and a count of possessing firearms while illegally present in the U.S. He made his first court appearance Tuesday.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Three men who pleaded guilty to planning to sell methamphetamine in Minnesota have now been sentenced.

Aaron Stenquist, Gerald Jensen and Juan Paniagua all previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota.

Stenquist was sentenced to 120 months in prison Wednesday. Jensen and Paniagua were previously sentenced to 112 months and 80 months, respectively.

The three — along with two other men who have yet to be sentenced — conspired to sell meth in the Twin Cities and eastern Minnesota, the attorney’s office said.

ROBBINSDALE, Minn. (WCCO) — Police in Robbinsdale say officers discovered several pounds of methamphetamine inside a “suspicious vehicle” Tuesday night.

Someone reported seeing the vehicle, which had front-end damage, at about 8 p.m. on the 3800 block of Xenia Avenue North. They said two people got out and started walking away.

Officers soon spotted them and made contact. A body search of one of the suspects yielded a handgun, and another gun was found inside the vehicle — as well as 6.5 pounds of meth.

The suspects are being held at the Hennepin County Jail. Police say the investigation is still underway.

WABASHA COUNTY, Minn. (WCCO) – Deputies in Wabasha County have confiscated roughly 5 pounds of meth and charged a 46-year-old man with two counts of controlled substance crime.

According to the Wabasha County Attorney’s Office, Michael Mattison arrived at the county’s criminal justice center on Tuesday to look for his car, which had been impounded.

Mattison, who had left the car on the road a few days before, didn’t know that the car had been in county custody. Law enforcement officers had also executed a search warrant and gone through the car.

Michael Mattison, along with the bags of meth allegedly found in his car (Credit: Wabasha County)

Deputies found 4.96 pounds of methamphetamine and roughly $1,800 in cash, the attorney’s office says.

“That is a significant amount to be found in Wabasha County,” Wabasha County Captain Curt Struwe said.

Mattison was arrested after he got his car back. The attorney’s office said that in a post-Miranda statement, Mattison admitted the methamphetamine was his and that he was selling it.

Federico Hernandez-Mozqueda (Credit: Wabasha County)

The arrest and charge comes less than two months after deputies confiscated 1.53 pounds of meth from 39-year-old Federico Hernandez-Mozqueda, who was charged with three counts of controlled substance crime. The meth had been intercepted by Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport police and was addressed to his home in Plainview, where deputies found it, along with several thousand dollars in cash, the attorney’s office says.

Struwe said the cases “show that methamphetamine is still rampant here in Wabasha.”

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A Minnesota man accused of dealing drugs out of a motorhome has been sentenced to 27 years in prison, according to federal authorities in South Dakota.

A federal indictment accuses Frank Stewart, 62, of participating in a drug ring that distributed massive amounts of methamphetamine in South Dakota and elsewhere.

“He personally distributed more than 500 grams of methamphetamine during his involvement in the conspiracy,” U.S. Attorney Alison Ramsdell said.

Stewart, of Browns Valley, Minnesota, pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. Two other defendants have been charged in the case.

Stewart was arrested last year in Todd County, Minnesota, where police searched his motorhome and discovered a half-pound of meth, more than $9,000 in cash and two firearms, according to a west-central Minnesota drug task force.

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