County funds deputy for drug unit

While the South Central Drug Investigation Unit (SCDIU) deals with drug crimes, Commander Ben Johnson says the name isn’t entirely accurate.

“It’s targeting violent crime,” he told Steele County commissioners last week.

The unit currently has five investigators, with approval for a sixth, and serves Steele, Freeborn, Waseca, and Faribault counties, as well as the cities in each.

While Steele County has not contributed an agent since 2011, officials agreed on Tuesday to place a full-time deputy within the unit. Previously, Sheriff Lon Thiele said, the county had funded an Owatonna police officer in the post.  

Johnson said a county deputy would have “basically a front row seat” and better knowledge of the county and its residents.

SCDIU is short-staffed because Freeborn County has had trouble hiring–and the work keeps piling up.

“Fentanyl is now taking the place of heroin,” Johnson said, adding the counties are seeing more overdoses, which involve time-consuming investigations. “We’re getting really bogged down.”

Other factors include a proliferation of methamphetamine, which has declined in price from $10,000 to $2,000 a pound, and the looming possibility of legalized marijuana.

“Right now, it’s really an untenable position, because some stuff’s legal and some isn’t, and we have no way of testing that on the roadside,” Johnson said. Having more staff would also help ensure that legal growers comply with state laws.

Johnson said a type of fentanyl that’s resistant to Narcan–a common opioid overdose treatment–has been found in Bloomington.

“I don’t even know how we’ll deal with it, but this is all coming,” he said. “We’ve been behind the eight-ball with fentanyl. We’ve seen it… We’re just a little bit behind the national statistics.”

The drugs are coming from “cartels and Chicago gangs,” Johnson said, and cartels have a presence in Owatonna and Medford. He showed commissioners videos of drug and gun transactions that he made, during daylight hours, in the Medford Mall parking lot.

In one, Johnson said, he bought seven pounds of meth–a $15,000 transaction. The seller was released two days after his arrest and went on to shoot his roommate in Illinois.

The other incident involved a trade: 13 guns (that SCDIU has confiscated and rendered in operable) for a half-pound of meth. Johnson said the man he met was late, because he’d been finishing up a drug treatment program.

While setting up transactions like that, Johnson added, “we see multiple drug deals happen.”

Officers who sign on to SCDIU go through free training, including many with federal programs. They get a fully equipped, unmarked task force vehicle. The county provides a weapon and ballistic armor.

Adding the Steele County deputy, Johnson said, “would be a really good way for the sheriff’s office get a little better service from SCIDU.”

Commissioners unanimously approved the request. Thiele said his department will fund the position using the $60,000 that had gone to the City of Owatonna.

“As much as I hate to spend money,” commissioner Greg Krueger said, “for the safety of our community, and to try and curb some of this, I don’t think we have a choice but to approve this request.”