by Dennis Dalman
Stearns County Deputy Joel Schmidt recently received an award of appreciation from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for his hard work in helping put together a case against a drug-trafficking operation between Mexico and the United States.
The award and laudatory citation were presented at a Stearns County Commissioner’s board meeting last month by Christopher Myers, a lawyer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Fargo.
Schmidt did his work as a member of the Central Minnesota Violent Offenders Task Force, in conjunction with many other law-enforcement agencies – local, state, federal.
Myers praised Schmidt for his “exemplary” and successful efforts to investigate, to do surveillance work and to interview suspects, an ongoing process that took hundreds of hours. Myers said Schmidt then meticulously gathered and documented all of that evidence for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Fargo, where the drug-trafficking cases are being tried. Schmidt’s efforts were critical to the prosecution’s success, Myers noted.
“His was a great example of hard work behind the scenes,” said Myers, adding that Schmidt’s efforts helped prevent many more drugs from coming to places in Minnesota, North Dakota and elsewhere.
Schmidt, who lives in Sauk Rapids, has been a member of the Stearns County Sheriff’s Department for nine years.
“These (law enforcement) guys don’t like to brag, but we think they should,” Myers said before presenting Schmidt with the award plaque.
The audience, with many fellow law-enforcement personnel gathered there, burst into applause as they gave the honoree a rousing standing ovation.
Joe Perske, the chair of the Stearns County Board of Commissioners, also had high praise for Schmidt and for law enforcement in general.
“To all the law enforcement in this room, thank you,” said Perske, adding there is so much gratitude among the public for their hard work. “The service you provide is just tremendous. Your work is very appreciated. Thank you!”
Previous honor
Schmidt was previously honored with a “Life-Saving Award.” In 2017, he was honored, also at a meeting of the Stearns County Commissioners Board, for helping save the life of a semi-truck driver. The man had apparently suffered a heart attack while driving on I-94 near Melrose. His truck then veered into a ditch. A man driving his car saw the accident, stopped and rushed to help the stricken driver. Just minutes later, Deputy Schmidt arrived on the scene. The two men gave chest compressions to the driver until an ambulance arrived. They had saved his life.
Schmidt’s results
Schmidt’s work helped lead to the arrests and indictments of 19 people involved in a widespread drug-trafficking operation, three of them women who’d lived in St. Cloud.
Macalla “Kayla” Knott, 30, of St. Cloud pled guilty to organizing an operation that delivered, often through the mail, large amounts of methamphetamine and fentanyl pills to Minnesota, North Dakota and other places in the United States. She is expected to be sentenced soon. Knott, who lived for a time in Mexico, had direct contacts with the Sinaloa drug cartel in that country. Sinaloa is one of the largest criminal drug syndicates in the world. Two other St. Cloud women were also arrested and charged with drug-smuggling crimes. Melanie Quick, 28, received a prison sentence of 100 months and three years of supervised release. The other St. Cloud woman, Deanne Marie Gerads, 33, a fugitive from the law and living in Mexico, was arrested in early August by Mexican authorities and turned over to the United States. She also allegedly had direct contact with the Sinaloa drug cartel. The charges against Gerads stated she was a member of the drug-smuggling group since 2019.
Among the drug shipments in the coordinated drug-smuggling operation were, in one case, 100 pounds of methamphetamine, 9 pounds of fentanyl powder and 120,000 fentanyl pills. Fentanyl overdoses, including among children, have reached “epidemic” levels in the United States, with most of the fentanyl coming from Mexico where it is made from materials coming mostly from China.
At the Stearns County Commissioners’ Board meeting, Myers also praised the intricate partnership work among so many agencies. The Drug Task Force was aided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office (District of Minnesota). Also involved in the widespread investigation were the Central Minnesota Offenders Task Force, the FBI, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Sartell and St. Cloud police departments and the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office, as well as sheriff’s offices in the counties of Sherburne, Benton and Morrison. Others that helped in the investigation were the Fargo and West Fargo police departments.
All of the arrests noted above were made possible because of what is dubbed “Operation Unfinished Business II,” an investigative inter-connective undertaking authorized by the Drug Task Force. It is an attempt to crack down on the international trafficking of illegal drugs – especially of methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl. The latter is a very dangerous drug that has caused so many overdose deaths, including among children who find the pills in homes and then eat one or more, thinking they are some kind of candy.
Stearns County Deputy Joel Schmidt (left) was recently presented an award by Christopher Myers, an attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Fargo. The award was to honor his hard work in helping put together a case against a drug-trafficking operation between Mexico and the United States.
