Federal indictment accuses 15 people of trafficking drugs from Mexico and distributing in Minnesota
BISMARCK, ND — Federal authorities said Tuesday they have charged 15 people with drug trafficking from Mexico and distribution in Minnesota, including a man from that state they identified as the leader of the operation.
Clinton James Ward, a 45-year-old Minnesota resident, is charged with more than a dozen drug offenses and with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise under what’s known as “the drug kingpin statute,” Minnesota District Attorney Andrew Luger said at a news conference.
Luger said Ward was behind “one of the largest and most prolific drug organizations ever to operate in Minnesota.”
The criminal enterprise charge carries a mandatory 20-year prison sentence, while possession with intent to distribute carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. Under the United States Sentencing Guidelines, Ward could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of all of the offenses he faces.
The others named in the indictment face multiple charges, including conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and drug offenses related to possession and distribution. Authorities say they lived in Minnesota and were distributing drugs, according to a federal prosecutor’s memo to the court.
After his 2019 arrest on drug charges, Ward fled to Mexico, where he established ties with the Sinaloa and CJNG drug cartels and created an international drug trafficking organization, Luger said.
For five years, Ward ran a distribution network that shipped and sold thousands of pounds of methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine in Minnesota, Luger said. Members of his network transported the drugs from Mexico in shipping containers, private vehicles and tractor-trailers, he said.
In March, Ward was captured by Mexican authorities and turned over to the FBI.
Agents seized more than 725 kilograms of methamphetamine, 30,000 counterfeit fentanyl pills, 4 kilograms of cocaine, 2 kilograms of fentanyl, 45 firearms and more than $2.5 million in drug proceeds, authorities said.
Luger said it was “one of the most sophisticated and significant drug trafficking organizations we have ever prosecuted.”
According to Luger’s office, more than 50 people associated with Ward have been charged with human trafficking crimes.
Ward’s attorney, Kurt Glaser, said he knew the charges were coming but had not heard anything about them when contacted by The Associated Press. He declined to comment but said Ward has a wife and two children in Mexico.