Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)
Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)
MINNEAPOLIS - Federal prosecutors have indicted 41 people in connection with an alleged large-scale drug trafficking ring that supplied heroin and other narcotics to Minnesota Indian reservations.
A criminal complaint says the drug ring, reportedly led by Omar Sharif Beasley, bought and transported heroin, methamphetamine, oxycodone, methadone and other drugs to sell them in communities surrounding the Red Lake and White Earth Indian Reservations in northern Minnesota between April of 2014 and April of 2015.
"The Omar Beasley heroin and prescription drug trafficking organization cared nothing about the collateral damage it inflicted upon neighborhoods, families, and especially young children on tribal lands in Minnesota and elsewhere in the Midwest," stated DEA Minneapolis-St Paul Assistant Special Agent in Charge Dan Moren. "Beasley and the 40 other members of his organization believed that federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies throughout the region were not speaking with one another and connecting the dots...they were wrong."
Beasley has been busted at least twice already in Minnesota on drug charges. In 2001 he was convicted of trafficking cocaine. And in 2009, he was caught on the Red Lake reservation with more than 2000 Oxycontin pills. He was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison and was released after 2.5.
In April 2014, in a podcast on blogtalkradio.com, Beasley said he turned his life around.
"Man, I took my time, and I learned from it, and I want to be doing the right things, you know what I mean?" Beasley said.
But precisely the time that interview was recorded, Beasley was allegedly starting a new scheme in Indian Country.
The Indictment says Beasley put together a network of people to get drugs from Chicago and Detroit -- to dealers in White Earth and Red Lake.
One year later, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger says they've busted them all.
"We didn't want to just take down the head of the organization or the people bringing drugs into the state of Minnesota. We wanted to make it as difficult as possible for somebody to come in and pick up where this organization left off," Luger said.
Besides being charged with criminal counts involving hundreds of grams of heroin and other narcotics, two defendants are charged with carrying a firearm during the commission of a drug trafficking crime, and one defendant is charged with acting as a straw buyer and lying to a gun dealer in order to buy a firearm for another person.
U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Andrew Lugar is seeking to have all defendants forfeit any property or money derived from the sale of drugs if they are convicted.
Below are the names of those named in the Federal Grand Jury indictment.
According to the indictment and documents filed in court, WILLIAM DAVID ALONZO, 23, CALVIN BEASLEY, 58, WILLIE BELLAMY, JR., 67, ERNESTINE DUKES, 45, MICHAEL LENIOR DUKES, 47, BRENDA ANN FAGAN, 67, VELVET ILENE JOHNSON, 44, YVETTE KOUAYARA, 53, BURNEY ABDULAH PEOPLES, 27, DOERON EARL RAYFORD, 41, LAMARCUS ANTONIO BROCK, 37, STEPHEN MARTIN HOLLIS, 37, MICHAEL TRAVELL COLLINS, 38, YALONZO RAMON HULL, 50, STACEY RAE DUCHAINE, 24, SARAH ELIZABETH THOMPSON, 30, and JODI LYNN KJOLBERG, 44, served as the out-of-state branches of the drug trafficking organization. These defendants acted as facilitators, suppliers, transporters, or distributors from Detroit, Mich., Chicago, Ill., Minneapolis, Minn., Milwaukee, Wis., and North Dakota.
According to the indictment and documents filed in court, TRAVIS JAMES BAKER, 25, ROSE LYNN BARRETT, 27, SONNIE MARIE BARRETT, 26, TIMOTHY JOSEPH BEAULIEU, JR., 33, MICHAEL JOSEPH DOMINGUEZ, 29, APRIL MARIE GRAVES, 31, JARVIS ALLEN KING, 23, CHRISTOPHER ERVING PEOPLES, 33, RAVONNA RAYE PEOPLES, 44, SHERRLENE ROSE ROBERTS, 67, DALE ANDREW SIGANA, 32, and ROBYN JOANNE WIPF, 33, served as the Red Lake branch of the drug trafficking organization. These defendants distributed drugs on the Red Lake Indian Reservation on behalf of the conspiracy. They also maintained drug stash houses on the reservation and gave the proceeds of drug sales to co-conspirators.
Several co-conspirators, identified in the indictment as WILLIAM JAMES FASTHORSE, 25, DURIAL JOHN JACKSON, 29, JUSTIN LEE JOHNSON, 24, GENE MICHAEL KEEZER, 37, NAKOYA HARRIS KEEZER, 37, RODNEY LEE KEEZER, 36, JENNIFER LYNN OPPEGARD, 27, JESSICA RAE OPPEGARD, 36, LEE ALLEN OPPEGARD, 39, LUCAS JOHN PETERSON, 26, and MAISIE ANN SARGENT, 25, served as the White Earth branch of the drug trafficking organization. These defendants facilitated, managed, transported and distributed drugs on the White Earth Indian Reservation on behalf of the conspiracy. They also received and transferred funds, as well as maintained drug stash houses on the White Earth Indian Reservation.
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