by Dennis Dalman
Convicted illegal-drug dealer Macalla “Kayla” Lee Knott, 32, formerly of St. Cloud, was sentenced to 26 years in federal prison recently by the U.S. District Court in Fargo, N.D.
Knott was convicted of being the leader-organizer of a drug network directly from Mexico where drugs were obtained from the notorious, violent “Sinaloa” drug cartel.
Sinaloa is one of many drug cartels, which are criminal organizations that make and sell illegal drugs to others, including to people in other countries through devious means.
Investigators estimate the Knott-led operation resulted in the distribution of at least 100 pounds of methamphetamine, nine pounds of fentanyl powder and 120,000 fentanyl pills throughout the Upper Midwest. In total, 18 defendants being charged in U.S. District Court in Fargo were involved in the criminal ring.
Knott’s father, Jeffery Robert Knott, 53, was also found guilty for his role in the drug operation and was sentenced last April to seven years in prison.
(For more news of others who were sentenced, see the very end of this story.)
Knott was the second St. Cloud woman to be found guilty and sentenced in the drug-shipping/selling scheme. The other is Melanie Quick, who was 30 at the time she was sentenced two years ago to nine years in prison and three years of supervised release.
Knott and her associates were charged with shipping and/or distributing (selling) illegal and dangerous drugs (including the highly lethal fentanyl) in the Upper Midwest, including central Minnesota. According to the charges, Knott would arrange payments to the drug-supply source, the cartel in Mexico. The drug-selling operation took place starting sometime in 2019 and continued into 2023, after which time the illegal operation and its participants were busted by authorities.
Before her arrest almost two years ago, Knott had been living in Mexico since March 2020, according to investigators in a story reported in August 2023 by multiple media, including the St. Joseph and Sartell-St. Stephen Newsleaders. At that time (August 2023), she had just pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances from Mexico to the Upper Midwest.
The drug ring she allegedly helped operate generated at least $10 million in sales.
According to the investigation, Knott worked in conjunction with at least five others to carry out the drug shipping/selling operations. All told, 18 others were arrested after extensive investigative work by the Organized Crime and Drug Task Force, which was aided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Minnesota.
The arrests of the alleged drug traffickers were also very much a result of coordinated background work by the Central Minnesota Offenders Task Force, including the St. Cloud and Sartell police departments and the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office, as well as sheriff’s offices in the counties of Benton, Sherburne and Morrison. Contributing to the investigation were the FBI, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Fargo Police Department and the West Fargo Police Department.
In court, prosecutors argued Knott and her Minnesota associates used all kinds of illegal tactics, including threats of violence, to conceal their drug shipments and distribution.
More prison terms
Others found guilty in the drug transactions-operation (all of them Minnesotans) and their prison sentences are:
Oliver Louis Dylla, 34, of Avon, 2.5 years.
James Warren Garner, 24, of Little Falls, seven years.
Deanna Gerads, 35, of Freeport, 10 years.
Robert Blair Gjevre, 62, of Champlin, nine years.
Demian Hebert, 50, of Bloomington, 14 years.
Joseph Paul Myers Jr., 72, of Elk River, 11 years.
David Robert Nowlan, 33, of Waite Park, 9 years.
Robert Jon Ratka, 42, of Melrose, 7 years.
Kayla Marie Schutz, 31, of St. Augusta, 3.5 years.
Mary Rose Thompson, 31, of Moorhead, 8.4 years.
Macalla “Kayla” Lee Knott
