MONTEVIDEO - A man identified to law enforcement as "the main source of methamphetamine" in western Minnesota and eastern South Dakota pleaded guilty Thursday in Chippewa County District Court to a felony second-degree drug possession charge.
Alejandro Mendez, 24, of Granite Falls, is expected to be sentenced to 57 months - nearly five years - in prison as part of the plea agreement. A sentencing hearing has not yet been set.
Mendez was originally charged with two felony charges for first-degree drug possession and sale.
Authorities first detained Mendez after a traffic stop for a basic violation June 22 yielded methamphetamine, a large amount of U.S. currency and a digital scale in a vehicle in which he was a passenger.
It wasn't until the next day, after authorities reviewed calls Mendez made from the Kandiyohi County Jail where he had been temporarily detained, that the magnitude of the case was discovered.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mendez allegedly called a phone number registering to Texas, telling an individual there was a large amount of money in his apartment and requesting an individual retrieve all his "clothes" from his apartment.
An investigator listening to the call suspected "clothes" meant methamphetamine.
Law enforcement executed a search warrant the same day at a Granite Falls residence where Mendez lived and discovered six bags of meth totaling 1.75 pounds or 785.5 grams.
In jail interviews, Mendez revealed to investigators that he had moved to western Minnesota from Texas recently because of a friend whom he called Flako.
Investigators knew Flako as the alias of Jose Trevino, a 25-year-old Cottonwood man also arrested in a recent large drug bust.
Trevino had been arrested in May after CEE-VI Drug Task Force investigators found 295 grams of methamphetamine and $11,565 in cash, multiple firearms, numerous rounds of ammunition, surveillance cameras, counter surveillance equipment, digital scales and drug packaging material in a home.
An individual told authorities that once Trevino was arrested in Cottonwood, the Mexico-based group for which Trevino works "sent Mendez to the area to fulfill distribution needs and clientele," according to the criminal complaint.
Trevino is facing multiple felony charges in Lyon County District Court for drug possession and sale, gun possession and child endangerment.
ADVERTISEMENT
Past tips to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension described Mendez as the supplier for Trevino's methamphetamine.
In July, Mendez asked a judge to throw out some of the evidence that led to the search warrant of his home. He argued that one interview, in which he admitted to law enforcement that he knew Flako, was conducted without a Miranda warning.
Typically, law enforcement must give a Miranda warning before interrogating a suspect, letting the suspect know that he has a right to refuse to answer questions and a right to consult an attorney.
Ben Pieh, the attorney representing Mendez, filed a transcript of that interview with the motion to throw out the evidence.
The transcript indicates that not only was the Miranda warning not given in the interview, but the investigator mentioned that he would not give Mendez the warning.
" ... obviously we're not sitting here reading you Miranda, we're not here to talk about yesterday," the investigator told Mendez, according to the transcript.
In August, Judge Dwayne Knuten issued an order denying the request to throw out the evidence from that interview.
Even if that statement may have been misleading, the judge wrote, the investigator was not legally obligated to repeat the Miranda warning, because he already said it once that upon Mendez's arrest the previous day.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mendez is currently in custody at the Chippewa County Jail in Montevideo. His sentencing hearing has not been set.
