Minnesota Legal Blog

On Jan. 31, Minnesota authorities announced a massive drug bust that could be worth well over $1 million. The bust was made during a raid on a property in West St. Paul.

According to local media reports, officers from the Dakota County Drug Force executed a search warrant at the property and turned up 45 pounds of methamphetamine, 15.5 kilograms of cocaine and over $710,000 in cash drug profits. While an official estimate of the monetary value of the drugs has not yet been released, going rates in Minnesota suggest that methamphetamine alone could be worth over $1 million on the street. Meanwhile, the seized cocaine could have a street value of up to $527,000.

In December, the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the drunk driving conviction of a man who was charged more than two years after the incident originally occurred. The defendant, now age 29, is from Stewartville.

Court documents show that the defendant went out drinking on the night of Sept. 23, 2013. He then smashed his vehicle into a curb, causing a passenger to be ejected through the rear window. The defendant was transported to the hospital where a police officer obtained a blood sample from him. Tests of the blood sample showed that he had a blood alcohol content level of over .10, which is above Minnesota's legal limit of .08. Despite this, authorities did not actually charge him with any crimes until December 2015. At that time, he was charged with four counts of criminal vehicular operation and two counts of fourth-degree DWI. In 2017, he was convicted of three counts of criminal vehicular operation and sentenced to three years of supervised probation.

The opioid crisis has been in the headlines across the United States. Marijuana has also been featured in many headlines as more states are legalizing marijuana for medical and recreational use. In Minnesota, there are more arrests across the state for methamphetamine than there are for opioids.

Approximately 37 percent of arrests in 2017 in Minnesota were drug-related, and about 74 percent of drug charges were for methamphetamine. Methamphetamine is the top reason for drug arrests in about 30 states.

A Minnesota man had to have his stomach pumped after he reportedly took cocaine that was hidden between his butt cheeks and ingested it while in police custody. The incident took place in mid-November in Rochester.

According to local media reports, Rochester police received a report about property damage by someone who could have a gun. Responding officers encountered the defendant, age 25, and searched him. While patting him down, they reportedly felt an object the "size of a bouncy ball" in the rear of his pants. They placed him under arrest and transported him to the local jail for processing. During the journey, he apparently retrieved the ball-shaped object, which was filled with cocaine, from his pants and ingested the drugs. After arriving at the jail, he began coughing. Officers then noticed white powder around his nose and took him to St. Mary's Hospital to have his stomach pumped.