Star Tribune
Prosecutors reveal Minnesota meth trafficker’s bosses: federal prison inmates
A meth distribution conviction sent John Paul Majerus II to federal prison for the first time in 2017. Years later, he emerged with new connections and bosses who gave their orders while still incarcerated themselves.
Dubbing himself “Money,” the 34-year-old Burnsville man ramped up his meth trafficking as his original federal sentence neared its end in 2022. Federal agents working undercover pegged Majerus as a key middleman for a trafficking organization that funneled meth up north from Mexico in shipments of up to 50 pounds per carload.
But prosecutors just disclosed last month that Majerus had been doing the bidding of higher-ups who conducted their business from within federal prison walls.
Majerus was arrested and indicted alongside one other person in March 2023 and pleaded guilty later that year to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Senior U.S. District Judge David Doty on Tuesday sentenced Majerus to 15 years in federal prison on the new conviction, imposing the mandatory minimum sentence in the case at the request of both Majerus’ lawyer and the prosecution.
A second defendant, Sarah Evenson, pleaded guilty last month and is awaiting a sentencing date of her own. However, the organization’s incarcerated leaders have yet to be publicly named or charged in the case.
According to a Feb. 7 memo outlining the government’s arguments before Majerus’ sentencing on Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Roso wrote that the “large-scale meth trafficking organization” Majerus worked for was helmed by “unindicted coconspirators incarcerated with the Bureau of Prisons, who would broker the sale of bulk amounts of methamphetamine and enlist individuals in the community to distribute the same.”
Court documents say one of the federally incarcerated co-conspirators connected an undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent with Majerus in Sept. 2022 to broker a one-pound meth sale for $3,000. A month after being released from prison, Majerus was stopped by police in Nov. 2022. Officers did not find any narcotics on him but did seize drug ledgers and wire receipts for money sent to Mexico. They also uncovered cell-phone communications with someone later identified as Evenson, who was later found to be running a Minneapolis stash house for the group.
Meanwhile, a courier arrested near Des Moines in January 2023 and found with more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine destined for Minnesota identified Majerus as someone who would instruct them where to deliver portions of bulk meth shipments being driven up north.
Investigators carried out a pair of controlled buys for four pounds of meth each the next month, both taking place at the Minneapolis apartment and coordinated by Majerus. Law enforcement later found 30 pounds of meth hidden behind a fake wall, as well as firearms and drug paraphernalia, while searching the apartment. Evenson was present during the search and admitted to knowing about the hidden meth. She told investigators that Majerus was responsible for coordinating seerl multi-pound sales at her apartment.
“The methamphetamine recovered likely represents only a fraction of the volume Mr. Majerus was moving on behalf of this well-organized and far reaching [drug trafficking organization],” Roso wrote in her memo to Doty last month. “Instead of using his time at the Bureau of Prisons to work on rehabilitation, Mr. Majerus instead made connections to allow him to continue his distribution activities once he was released.”
Both Roso and Peter Wold, an attorney who has represented Majerus in both federal cases, attributed Majerus’ fast return to drug trafficking to a life that’s been dominated by drug use and physical trauma.
According to court filings, Majerus began using controlled substances as a teenager, which aggravated underlying mental health issues and traumatic experiences. His drug use ramped up in his early 20s with a dependency on prescription painkillers. He was shot in his lower back in 2016 and required multiple surgeries to repair his intestines, abdomen and hip while still suffering lasting effects.
In response to a pre-sentence investigation from U.S. Probation staff, Majerus attributed his return to drug trafficking to his ongoing medical issues, including the rising costs of medical and rehabilitative treatment.
Wold urged Doty to recommend that the Bureau of Prisons place his client in a prison equipped to provide specialized medical care. On Tuesday, Doty agreed to recommend that Majerus be housed at the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn., or the next-closest such facility.
“Fifteen years in federal prison will certainly be sufficient in the grand scheme of things to punish Mr. Majerus and give him the opportunities to be a productive citizen,” Wold said.
Before Doty announced his sentence, Majerus tearfully apologized while a small group of family members watched on.
“I want you guys to know that I plan on using this time to continue working on myself and to work on my health – mental and physical – and work on the skills to be the man, son and father you all deserve and I want to be,” Majerus said.
The man shot by law enforcement during a 15-hour siege in rural western Minnesota had been paranoid and acting erratically, leading his family to call authorities about his behavior, court documents say.
Kasey Paul Willander, 27, was behaving strangely Saturday afternoon while possessing a knife and a bow, his mother told a Yellow Medicine County sheriff’s deputy around 3:15 p.m., according to the search warrant from the Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office.
Willander left before deputies arrived at the home in Clarkfield, 15 miles south of Montevideo, the search warrant said.
Two hours later, law enforcement said it received a call that Willander had a rifle and was at another relative’s home nearby.
These relatives were forced to barricade themselves in their home as police used an aerial drone to search for Willander, who was hiding in a grove of trees on the property, the warrant said.
As deputies evacuated his relatives from the home, Willander pointed a long gun at the officers, the warrant said.
A standoff ensued. Willander boarded up windows in the home and destroyed cameras on the property, the warrant said.
Police SWAT teams surrounded the home, the Yellow Medicine County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Monday. Willander again shot at the officers.
DULUTH — Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has given an unexpected and no-strings-attached $9 million to a Duluth nonprofit that helps entrepreneurs grow.
The EFund was chosen through Yield Giving’s “quiet research” process, in which it chooses and evaluates organizations privately for unsolicited gifts. EFund is only the second known northeast Minnesota organization to benefit from the billions Scott, an author and the ex-wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, has given since 2020 as part of her pledge to donate a majority of her wealth over her lifetime. The Duluth Area YMCA in 2020 received an undisclosed amount. About $140 million in donations have now been designated to Minnesota organizations.
“It still feels surreal,” EFund CEO Shawn Wellnitz said. “And with no restrictions, it’s just transformational,” especially as pandemic aid dries up for businesses and creditors are more cautious about lending money.
Unrestricted gifts are considered rare in the philanthropy world.
The EFund nonprofit, formed in 1989, manages a portfolio of about $60 million, lending money and offering services to entrepreneurs in northeast and east-central Minnesota, and northern Wisconsin. The Seattle billionaire’s gift is its largest ever. The recognition and confidence that comes with a Scott donation can help the organization leverage that money “multiple times over,” Wellnitz said.
The nonprofit works with about 1,500 entrepreneurs each year. Wellnitz said the money will allow the organization to take bigger risks with companies they are already helping who are poised to bring more jobs to the region, along with preparing succession plans for the looming mass retirements of area aging business owners.
It has lent start-up money several times to Advanced Machine Guarding Solutions, a safety equipment supplier in Hibbing. The EFund helped the owner, who came from the robotics industry, line up other funding sources. The company now has more than a dozen employees and “back orders through the roof,” Wellnitz said.
Yield Giving didn’t share with the EFund why it chose the nonprofit. Its website says it looks at organizations in underserved communities that have high potential for impact, and with stable finances, a long track record and evidence of outcomes.
Star Tribune
A second person has been charged in connection with an attack on a north Minneapolis homeless shelter that forced dozens of women and children to relocate last week.
A second person has been charged in connection with an attack on a north Minneapolis homeless shelter that forced dozens of women and children to relocate last week.
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