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**Minnesota Anti-Heroin Task Force Places High Value on Partnerships with Tribal Law Enforcement**
June 2019 | Volume 12 | Issue 5

When Minnesota law enforcement agencies began talking  about creating a task force to help tackle the escalating opioid crisis, they  started by considering its victims.

 According to the Centers for Disease  Control and Prevention, Minnesota’s Native American and Alaska  Native population is five times more likely than Minnesota’s White population to  experience a drug overdose. That disparity is greater in Minnesota than any  other state that reports race data on overdoses. Drug treatment admission data  show that, for the first time ever, more members of Minnesota’s tribal  community are seeking treatment for heroin abuse than are seeking treatment for  alcohol abuse.

 Clearly, a task force developed to address this issue must  include tribal law enforcement as a key partner.

 With a $1.4 million,  two-year federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community  Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), the Minnesota  Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA)  established the Minnesota  Anti-Heroin Task Force (AHTF). Its  mission is to help local agencies address the heroin problem in Indian Country communities  by disrupting the flow of heroin into Minnesota and to investigate all  overdose-related deaths.

 Interest from local and  tribal law enforcement agencies exceeded expectations. Since the AHTF formed in  February 2018, the BCA has entered into joint powers agreements with 39 agencies including six of Minnesota’s 11  sovereign nations and nine of the state’s 21 Violent Offender Task Forces.
Drug Traffickers Target Two Minnesota Indian Reservations
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) received an  anonymous tip in 2017 about possible drug activity at a residence on the Mille  Lacs Reservation in Minnesota. Through their investigation, BIA and the Mille  Lacs Tribal Police Department identified a group of individuals involved in  trafficking and distribution of heroin, fentanyl, and carfentanyl targeting the  Mille Lacs and Red Lake Indian reservations.

An 18-month investigation pulled in resources from the  Mille Lacs and Red Lake Tribal Police Departments, the Anti-Heroin Task Force,  BIA, Lakes Area Drug Task Force, Paul Bunyan Drug Task Force, Mille Lacs County  Sheriff’s Office, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the Drug  Enforcement Administration (DEA). Agents developed confidential sources who  conducted successful controlled buys from multiple suspects. The buys netted  more than 120 grams of heroin, some of which tested positive for fentanyl and  carfentanyl. Law enforcement identified the primary distributors and tracked  them to a residence on the Mille Lacs Reservation. Agents surveilled the  suspects as they traveled to and from Minneapolis.

Law enforcement then executed a search warrant on the  residence and located approximately 80 grams of heroin, approximately 25 grams  of cocaine, and 4 grams of methamphetamine. Three suspects were arrested on  state drug charges, and one suspect was arrested on an outstanding warrant.  Investigators identified drug source suppliers from Minneapolis and Chicago.

The case was forwarded to the U.S. Attorney’s Office  in Minneapolis for review, and eventually eight suspects were federally  indicted for their roles in the conspiracy.

 Most of the grant is  designated for overtime costs for local officers investigating heroin  trafficking. To date, the BCA has paid out $78,000 in overtime and encumbered  $242,000 on additional approved cases—with proven results, as shown in table 1.

**Table 1. Successes of the  BCA since February 2018**
Heroin seized1658.89 gHeroin purchased407.805 gFentanyl seized88.2 mcgFentanyl purchased100.84 mcgPharmaceuticals seized22Pharmaceuticals purchased41Total investigations87Total arrests63Search warrants85Overdose death investigations24
These successes point to  the value of establishing and strengthening partnerships with tribal law  enforcement. BCA task force members met with Minnesota’s tribal liaison and  several tribal chiefs to further grow task force participation among sovereign  nations. They also shared AHTF goals with Minnesota’s Indian Affairs Council. An  AHTF program coordinator regularly attends  multidisciplinary tribal conferences to learn about other heroin-related  efforts in their communities and Tribal Violent Offender and Narcotics  Task Force meetings to engage and support tribal law enforcement partners’  efforts.

 Beyond enforcement, the AHTF is working with the state’s  Department of Health to improve communication about heroin overdose incidents  by promoting the use of an overdose mapping tool—the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program, or ODMAP—to  help public safety and public health entities identify and respond to overdose  clusters and trends both within Minnesota’s tribal communities and across the  state.

The task force also worked with Minnesota’s Office of  Justice Programs to identify best practices for tracking and  reporting cases and develop forms that make it easier for agencies to  participate across specialties and jurisdictions.

 Now in its second year, the  AHTF is focused on continuing to address overdose racial disparities by  reducing heroin and other illicit opioid activity in Minnesota Indian Country  and on increasing partnerships with the multiple stakeholder groups battling  this crisis. The COPS Office funding has enabled these investigations  and partnerships to come together and has enhanced Minnesota's ability to fight  the opioid crisis. 

 Susan Burggraf        Special Agent in Charge        Bemidji Regional Office         Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension      

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