Feds: South Minneapolis law enforcement action was related to seizure of 900 pounds of meth
Law enforcement officers found 900 pounds of methamphetamine in a Burnsville storage locker recently, which led them to raid eight Twin Cities metro locations seeking evidence related to the drug find, as well as evidence of bank fraud, illegal guns and human trafficking, according to a federal court filings.
The details of the raid were revealed in a federal indictment announced on Tuesday against a 27-year St. Paul woman for 'assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers' during a protest at one of the search locations, Las Cuatro Milpas in south Minneapolis.
The indictment is filled with details that would seem to be tangentially related to the alleged assault on an officer, but shed light on the larger operation.
The attempt to execute a search warrant in south Minneapolis led to a contentious confrontation last week between a bevy of law enforcement agencies and demonstrators, who feared an ICE raid amid the agency's increasingly militarized tactics. The indictment also confirms that the operation was not related to immigration per se but was an ongoing investigation of major drug trafficking.
Federal officials say they found the meth — valued between $22-25 million — in Burnsville and were then granted eight search warrants for locations in Bloomington, Inver Grove Heights, Northfield, Burnsville and Minneapolis. They found two gold-plated guns, documents, digital evidence and images from the Brian De Palma film, 'Scarface,' which is a common homage of narco-traffickers, according to the indictment.
At Las Cuatro Milpas on East Lake Street last week, officers showed up to serve the warrant wearing the uniforms of ICE, DEA, FBI, the criminal investigation arm of the IRS. The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office was also present as was the Minneapolis Police Department, though only for crowd control.
An ICE spokesperson said the 'groundbreaking' operation was Minnesota's first under President Donald Trump's Homeland Security Task Force, which he established via executive order on the first day of his second term.
The overwhelming show of force motivated people in the community — fearing an immigration raid — to protest. The demonstration led to clashes with police A slew of local elected officials questioned the effectiveness and purpose of the law enforcement operation. Gov. Tim Walz called it 'chaotic.' Attorney General Keith Ellison said 'it seemed like the point was to inflict terror and fear into the community.'
Minneapolis City Councilman Jason Chavez told MPR's Cathy Wurzer that the operation was intended to intimidate residents. 'It felt like a very tactical decision to escalate, cause pain and trauma, to the people that live here in the heart of south Minneapolis, and it felt like an intentional decision to unfortunately scare the people that live here.'
Despite the new information on the south Minneapolis operation, federal law enforcement is still likely to face skepticism in the Twin Cities following the raid, especially given the Trump administration's escalation of immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, which now includes use of the U.S. military.
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