RED LAKE LAW ENFORCEMENT DRUG STATS 2015 & 2016

As the year comes to close, 2015 was very productive for the Red Lake Department of Public Safety in the war against drugs and illegal prescription pills. In the 2015 calendar year the Red Lake Department of Public Safety has executed close to 40 Drug related search warrants for both vehicles and homes and made over 140 drug related arrests for possession and unlawful sale of drugs. These operations have recovered dozens of firearms and large amounts of currency related to drug profits,stolen property and the seizure of several vehicles used for drug related transactions.

In 2016, the Police Department has also already made 16 drug related arrests as well. Drugs consisted of Heroin, Methamphetamine, Cocaine, Morphine, Marijuana and illegal prescription pills.

More importantly innumerable doses of narcotics worth over $400,000.00 dollars were seized and taken off of the streets of Red Lake. Drug dealers are being moved out of tribal houses and at times are being removed from the reservation if the dealers are non-Indian offenders and good families have moved in.

In October of 2015,the Red Lake Department of Public Safety recently developed its own Tribal Drug Task Force comprised solely of Red Lake Law Enforcement Officers and is now partnering with several tribal service programs and the community in combatting illegal drugs and abused prescription pills on Red Lake Reservation.

The community by large is not a large metro area but yet is infested with drug related activity similar to large and immensely populated communities and the police department is doing a very good job with limited resources by going after local dealers and those non-Indians who are bringing drugs into our community.

One investigation saw United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger announce the indictment of a multi-state heroin trafficking conspiracy on Thursday May 28, 2015 in Minneapolis, MN. Drug traffickers targeted two Minnesota Indian reservations with Red Lake being one of the reservations where the initial investigation started when close to 2 kilograms of heroin were located during the execution of a tribal search warrant that started with a Red Lake Police Officer traffic stop. It was later determined that metro non-Indian drug suppliers were selling millions of dollars of heroin but tribal police teamed with federal agents in a seven-month investigation that dismantled an interstate drug ring loaded with heroin, cocaine and prescription narcotics from Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis being delivered to Red Lake and White Earth.

This investigation starting in Red Lake by Red Lake Police Officers resulted in a federal grand jury indictment of 41 members of the alleged trafficking operation and our department will continue to be effective on multi-state drug dealers on Red Lake.