A total of 29 defendants, including seven in Bakersfield, have been indicted for allegedly conspiring to bring methamphetamine and heroin from Bakersfield and distribute it in North Dakota.
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The charges result from the Bakken Organized Crime Strike Force. It will target the criminal networks blamed for much of the increase in human trafficking, drug dealing and violent offenses in northwestern North Dakota and northeastern Montana.
“After only a few months we are seeing the efficiency, strength and extended reach provided by the strike force model”, Myers said.
Wayne Stenehjem- ND Attorney General: “We don’t see an engrained organized criminal element like other states have seen, so to the extent we are able to nip this in the bud with these kinds of cases, it really does indicate that we can get a handle on this”.
Bakersfield police have previously said some local gang members have relocated to North Dakota. About a third of the defendants had been arrested by Wednesday morning “and the rest have been contacted to arrange for their voluntary surrender”, said Chris Myers, the acting U.S. attorney for North Dakota. Minot police officers who responded “observed drugs and drug paraphernalia in the room that was consistent with methamphetamine distribution in plain view”, states the affidavit by Morton County Sheriff’s Deputy David Bjorndahl Jr., a task force officer for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
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All defendants face at least 10 years in federal prison on the felony charges that include possession of meth and heroin with intent to distribute, money laundering conspiracy, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He said the strike force “helps us tie our local drug activity to the bigger picture” of the source of drugs coming into the city.
