Two people in Minnesota were taken into police custody on May 2 and charged for selling heroin. The 27-year-old man and 34-year-old woman were detained when a search warrant was executed at a location in Duluth. Authorities had conducted multiple controlled buys and other surveillance efforts during the week leading up to the search and seizure.
At their arraignments on May 4, each of the accused individuals was charged for one count of first-degree sale of heroin, a felony. The accused man’s bail was set at $100,000, and the accused woman’s bail was set at $50,000. It is unclear whether either of the accused individuals have prior drug convictions on their records.
Officers from the Duluth Police Department and the Lake Superior Drug and Violent Crime Task Force seized a total of 13 grams of heroin during the search. The heroin was reportedly packaged in a way that indicated that it was intended for individual sale. There were no reports about any other items seized from the location. Often, police officers will seize cash and items that they believe were obtained from drug sales during a search and seizure.
A person who has been charged for selling controlled substances may be able to negotiate for a lesser charge of drug possession. A criminal defense attorney may argue that police obtained little evidence of drug sales, and all of the drugs that were seized were for the defendant’s personal use. If a controlled buy was conducted, an attorney may argue that the authorities entrapped the defendant during their undercover surveillance efforts.
Source: Duluth News Tribune, “Two arrested in Duluth heroin bust,” May 5, 2016