Star Tribune
Prison for man who smuggled Minnesota record amount of fentanyl in stuffed toy animals
A St. Paul man has received a prison term topping 13 years for orchestrating what investigators said was the biggest fentanyl pill bust in Minnesota history, carried out by several accomplices who mailed the deadly opioid in stuffed toy animals from Arizona to the Twin Cities.
Cornell Montez Chandler, 25, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl in connection with the operation that ran from August 2022 to February 2023.
After serving 13⅓ years in prison, Chandler will be on supervised release for another five years.
One of the investigating agencies, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, said the capture of the unprecedented haul totaled 280,000 pills. They weighed more than 66 pounds and had a street value of roughly $2.2 million.
From 2022 to 2023, Minnesota saw an 8% decrease in drug overdose deaths from 1,384 to 1,274 deaths, according to preliminary data from the state last month. Though the numbers are preliminary, 2023 likely marks the first time since 2018 that Minnesota has seen a drop in this category.
“Chandler wasn’t just part of that epidemic; he fueled it,” prosecutors wrote to the court ahead of sentencing as part of their push for a sentence of 15⅔ years for Chandler, whose criminal history in Minnesota also includes convictions for first-degree robbery, fleeing police, drug possession and drunken driving.
“He not only traveled to Arizona with other co-defendants, where he personally participated in the packaging and shipping process,” the filing continued, “but he also organized and directed other defendants with shipping and trafficking information, retrieved or received packages from the recipients in the Twin Cities, and coordinated the distribution of fentanyl for further trafficking through several co-defendants.”
The defense asked that Chandler get 10 years in prison, noting he was exposed to substance abuse in his home as a child, and that he suffered lingering trauma from when he was hit in the abdomen by a stray bullet at age 20.
Skygazers in Minnesota and around the U.S. will enjoy one more chance to see a supermoon before the end of the year.
The supermoon, also known as the Beaver Moon, will appear fullest on Friday, November 15, at 3:29 p.m CST., NASA said. That’s before sunset in Minnesota, but the moon will appear full for about three days around this time, until a few hours before sunrise on Sunday morning.
The stunning moon occurs when it is as close to Earth in its lunar orbit as it ever gets, while also being full. Supermoons only happen three or four times per year, and always appear consecutively.
The name Beaver Moon comes from the Maine Farmers’ Almanac, which began publishing Native American names for full moons in the 1930s. NASA said Mid-fall during the November full moon was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze to ensure a supply of warm winter furs, NASA said. Another theory is the name comes from the busy pre-winter period for beavers, according to the space agency.
November’s full moon is the last of four consecutive supermoons, slightly closer to Earth and brighter than the first of the four supermoons in mid-August.
The next supermoon won’t be until October 2025.
Star Tribune
Fired for drunken driving, Minnesota DNR waterfowl specialist cites hallucinations and wants his job back
Steve Cordts has been a respected DNR duck and goose manager for the last 20 years.
Read the original article
Star Tribune
WI cop quits after allegedly re-enacting George Floyd’s murder while sub at Woodbury HS
A one-time substitute teacher who was banned from a Minnesota school district after being accused last month of re-enacting George Floyd’s murder in class has now lost his job as a police officer in western Wisconsin, the city’s mayor said Monday.
Prescott Mayor Robert Daugherty told the Star Tribune that the City Council on Monday reached a separation agreement with Steven Dwight Williams, 48, and accepted his resignation effective Friday in lieu of his termination.
Students reported to Principal Sarah Sorenson-Wagner that Williams, teaching on Oct. 14 for the first time at Woodbury High School, wanted them to know about his life as a police officer. According to the district, he put a student on the ground as part of a re-enactment of Minneapolis police actions that led to the murder of Floyd in May 2020.
Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes, contributing to Floyd’s death. Chauvin and three other Minneapolis officers were convicted and sentenced to prison in connection with Floyd’s death.
In addition, Williams mimicked holding a gun and pointing it at students, stated police brutality is not real, told sexist jokes and engaged in “inappropriate and racially harmful behavior” during English classes for sophomores and seniors, according to a letter Sorenson-Wagner sent to parents.
The statement added that Williams had been in law enforcement for many years in his native Wisconsin and Montana and had been on Prescott force for about two years. He was immediately put on administrative leave from the Prescott force in the wake of the allegations.
In March of this year, Williams was granted a three-year, short-term substitute teacher’s license for all grades, according to state records. Following Williams’ alleged conduct at Woodbury High School, a report was filed with the Minnesota Department of Education. As of Friday, public records show no disciplinary findings by the department against him.
Staff Writer Tim Harlow contributed to this report.
