Three Mpls men arrested in Cass Lake drug bust

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.

Nov. 25, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

Three Minneapolis men were arrested in a drug raid in Tract 33 area of Cass Lake Wednesday, Cass County Chief Deputy Randy Fisher said.

Fabian Pesantez, 21, Edy Geovanny Gonzalez-Ortiz, 23, and Elia Cristobal Pesantez, 20, all were arrested on charges in connection with the raid. All three are being held in the Cass County Jail pending formal charges, but Fisher said he did not know when charges would be filed because of today's Thanksgiving holiday.

Officers from the Cass County Sheriff's Department, Cass Lake Police Department and Leech Lake Department of Public Safety executed a search warrant at the residence on the northern edge of Cass Lake Wednesday afternoon and seized a "significant" amount of cash -- believed to be proceeds from drug sales -- and a substance believed to be crack cocaine.

Crack cocaine is a hard, pebble-like piece of high purified cocaine prepared for smoking and it is highly addictive.

Fisher said the raid was the result of an investigation based on intelligence gathered from several law enforcement agencies including the sheriff's office, Leech Lake Department of Public Safety and the Paul Bunyan Drug Task Force.