REGIONAL- Law enforcement officials seized more than a pound of what was believed to be the dangerous synthetic opioid fentanyl in a highway drug bust Monday morning in central St. Louis County.
The traffic stop took place along Hwy. 53 in Ellsburg Township, north of Cotton, after an ongoing narcotics investigation indicated that Trisco Rondell Cooks, 35, of Chisholm (pictured), was transporting illegal narcotics to the Iron Range from the Chicago, Illinois area.
According to a St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office press release, Investigators assigned to the Lake Superior Violent Offender Task Force (LSVOTF) stopped a vehicle driven by Cooks on Monday and executed a search warrant. The vehicle was registered to “We Dat Rentals,” a Chisholm business owned by Cooks. Investigators discovered the suspected fentanyl, along with evidence of illegal marijuana use, during the search of the vehicle.
Cooks, who according to court records has multiple recent convictions for illegal use of marijuana in vehicles, was arrested and booked into St. Louis County jail without bail on charges of first-degree felony sale of a controlled substance and importing controlled substances across state borders.
Two other individuals in the vehicle were identified as Cole Alexander Heyn, 24, and Chloe Ceanna Villebrun, 21, both of Hibbing. Both Heyn and Villebrun were arrested and booked on charges of controlled substance sales and possession. Heyn has three prior convictions in the past four years involving possession and/or sale of controlled substances. Both are being held without bail.
Multiple internet sources estimate the street value of one gram of fentanyl ranges from $100 to $200, making the value of Monday’s bust roughly between $50,000 to $100,000.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is usually in either liquid or powder forms and is commonly combined with heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine. Fentanyl was responsible for over 30,000 overdose deaths in 2018.
The Lake Superior Violent Offender Task Force, formerly known as the Lake Superior Drug and Violent Crime Task Force, is a multiagency effort consisting of members from the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, the Duluth, Hibbing, Virginia, and Superior Police Departments, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Minnesota National Guard Counter Drug Task Force.
Members of the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, the Eveleth Police Department K9 team, and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension assisted with Monday’s incident.