Large amount of fentanyl pills seized in Twin Cities

Back-to-back law enforcement raids in the Twin Cities yielded more than 17,000 pills of suspected fentanyl and $45,000 in cash, while a St. Cloud man is charged on allegations of holding "a high position in the drug distribution hierarchy."

Thomas A. Gentry Jr., 34, of St. Cloud was charged Thursday in Anoka County District Court with five felony drug counts and a misdemeanor count of providing false information to police in connection with the seizures Tuesday at a rented storage unit in Maple Grove and a home in Coon Rapids.

Gentry remains jailed in lieu of $750,000 bail. He's due in court on Jan. 12. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

Assistant County Attorney Paul Ostrow has labeled Gentry's alleged drug trafficking "a major controlled substance offense" to such a degree that the prosecutor has asked the court to impose a prison term "up to double the presumptive sentence" should there be a conviction.

Among the reasons Ostrow listed in his filing Thursday for an aggravated sentence:

The charges against Gentry say his drug distribution network in Minnesota reached beyond the Twin Cities to Onamia to the north and St. Cloud to the west.

Pills laced with the synthetic drug fentanyl are to blame for a large number of overdoses across the state. Last year in Hennepin County, 340 people died of opioid overdoses, most of which involved fentanyl, which officials say is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.

According to the criminal complaint:

In early August, the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Anoka Hennepin Drug Task Force and tribal police were investigating a "large-scale distribution of counterfeit M Box 30 pills" — which commonly are laced with fentanyl — on the Mille Lacs Reservation and elsewhere in the state. Investigators connected text messages about drug trafficking and the pills to Gentry's cellphone.

On Oct. 3, investigators saw a BMW SUV with dark-tinted windows "associated with [Gentry]" meet in St. Cloud on a roadway with an occupant of another vehicle. Law enforcement trailed that vehicle to Onamia and pulled it over. A "large quantity" of counterfeit M Box 30 pills were seized. The vehicle's occupant confirmed they were laced with fentanyl, and that person's cellphone held messages confirming they were bought from Gentry.

In November, investigators saw Gentry drive to a public storage facility in the 9500 block of Zachary Lane in Maple Grove, where he used a fake name to rent a unit. An investigator saw on surveillance video Gentry bringing and removing backpacks and other items from the unit.

On Tuesday, the first of the two raids occurred shortly after 9:30 a.m. at the storage facility where more than 12,800 of the counterfeit pills were seized along with $38,500 in cash.

The second raid targeted a home shortly after 12:10 p.m. in the 800 block of NW. 126th Lane, where Gentry was known to live, and confiscated about 4,300 of the same pills from a safe in the kitchen. Also seized from the home was nearly 1 ¹⁄₃ pounds of marijuana and three-fourths of an ounce of cocaine.

Gentry was sitting nearby outside during the search of the home, where he gave law enforcement a fake name and date of birth. Investigators confirmed his true identity, arrested him and collected $6,592 from a bag he was holding.

Court records in Minnesota show that Gentry has felony drug convictions in Sherburne County in 2010 and in St. Louis County in 2013.