State troopers trained to stop different kind of speed

The Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS - A large contingent of Minnesota state troopers are leading the state's battle to stop the flow of methamphetamine into the state from the popular vacation state of Sinaloa in western Mexico.

Capt. David Graham, head of the State Patrol's investigative unit, says smugglers working for Mexican drug cartels are delivering millions of dollars worth of meth to Minnesota.

Drug Enforcement Administration and state authorities estimate that more than 100 pounds of meth produced and packaged by Mexican cartels arrives in Minnesota every month.

In the past six months, troopers have seized 25 pounds of meth - an illegal drug many users call "speed" - hidden in three vehicles.

"I shudder to think what we're missing," Graham said.

Trooper Jeff Sharpe and his colleagues recently went through a federally funded course dubbed Desert Snow, learning how to identify suspicious vehicles, conduct detailed roadside interviews, and detect signs that a vehicle has been altered with hidden storage compartments.

They learned that meth smugglers prefer nondescript compact cars that blend into highway traffic that's filled with giant semis and SUVs.

Now, Sharpe watches out for that kind of blandness.

In February, he stopped a tan Ford Contour after the driver cut off a semitrailer truck while changing lanes. According to police reports, the driver let Sharpe search the car and he noticed the molding above the glove compartment and dashboard appeared to have been cut from the trim.

He called for a patrol dog and the dog locked its nose on the dash area, where Sharpe found a hidden compartment containing about 10 pounds of packaged meth, with a street value of more than $1 million, police reports showed.

It was the largest single seizure of Mexican meth by authorities in Minnesota.

A trial date for the driver, Merced Guadalupe Bejar-Orta, is pending. His attorney is arguing that the search was illegal.

Nearly 90 of Minnesota's 425 troopers have gone through the program since last fall, along with 12 local officers who work for communities bordering the state's interstates.

They face a big job.

Federal authorities say Mexican cartels now control at least 80 percent of the meth sold in Minnesota and are filling the void created as small dealers are forced out of business by the new state law restricting the sale of cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine or ephedrine, commonly used to process meth.

Authorities say the cartels have smuggled tons of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine into Mexico from China, India and eastern Europe to feed their super labs.

A DEA task force fighting the meth trade in Minnesota seized nearly 110 pounds of the drug last year. This year, the task force has already seized 88 pounds, officials told the Star Tribune.

Tom Kelly, head of the DEA's office in Minneapolis, said the reach of one large Sinaloa cartel, which is based in the city of Tepic, is huge.

"You can't stop it at the border of Minnesota," Kelly said. "It's a constant uphill battle."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Dunne, head of the Minnesota office's narcotics section, said meth is the number one drug threat facing federal drug prosecutors and agents in the Midwest.

In the past five years, federal prosecutions of meth cases in Minnesota have more than doubled, from 43 to 104, Dunne said.

But that's only a small percentage compared to the meth that comes in undetected, he said.

"We are only catching the tip of the iceberg of the methamphetamine that is coming into Minnesota from Mexico," Dunne said.