Cass Co. officials arrest illegal alien on cocaine charge

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Sept. 17, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

The Cass County Sheriff's Department arrested an illegal alien Saturday in Cass Lake for possessing 25 grams of cocaine, Cass County Sheriff Jim Dowson said Thursday.

Julio Cesar Astudillo-Alvarado, 23, of Ecuador, was arrested after a Cass County deputy pulled him over for speeding and not having a rear license plate.

He was arraigned in Cass County District Court Wednesday and is being held in the Cass County jail on $750,000 bail. His next court date is Sept. 20.

According to a criminal complaint, Astudillo-Alvarado was arrested about 11:30 p.m. Saturday after he sped past a Cass County deputy on state Highway 371 near Wilkenson.

The deputy noticed a 1992 green Pontiac Bonneville catching him from behind, pulled to the side of the road and noticed the car had no rear license plate.

The deputy followed the speeding car into Cass Lake and then pulled it over. The driver produced a Minnesota driver's license in the name of Manuel J. Astudillo, but it was later discovered the man was actually Astudillo-Alvarado.

He allegedly told the officer he was driving from Minneapolis to visit a girlfriend who lived in the Tract 33 development in Cass Lake.

An hour prior to the stop, however, a Cass County Sheriff's investigator told the deputy he had received a tip that people of "Mexican decent" from the Twin Cities metro area were believed to be hauling cocaine to the Tract 33 area.

The deputy asked Astudillo-Alvarado to exit the car, and after receiving permission, searched the vehicle. Inside the car, he found a large piece of tinfoil that contained a plastic bag with a chunk of what appeared to be cocaine and weighed 25 grams.

The deputy field tested the substance and it tested positive for cocaine.

After being arrested, Astudillo-Alvarado allegedly told the deputy he was an illegal alien and he was not supposed to be in the United States. He also said he had previously been deported.

Cass County investigator Mike Diekmann said earlier this week that because of an informant's tip, they knew Astudillo-Alvarado had purchased his vehicle with cash earlier in the day in the Twin Cities.

Astudillo-Alvarado is charged with first-degree controlled substance for possession and giving false information to a peace officer.

If convicted of the first count he could face 30 years in prison, a $1 million fine or both. If convicted of the second count, he could face a year in jail, a $33,000 fine or both.

Sheriff Dowson said his department makes about 10 to 15 cocaine-related arrests a year, but the number is rising.

He said the perception that Cass County residents cannot afford designer drugs such as cocaine is not true any longer.

"The idea that people here can't afford cocaine is disappearing," he said. "There's not as much economic devastation here as there was 10 years ago. There's a lot of cocaine floating around."