FARGO, N.D. — A Minnesota woman will be sentenced in July after pleading guilty to federal charges in connection with a Mexico-to-Midwest drug smuggling operation.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Fargo says 33-year-old Deanna Marie Gerads of Freeport appeared in court Tuesday, where she entered a guilty plea to charges of conspiracy to distribute and possess controlled substances. She is scheduled to be sentenced July 2.
Gerads was apprehended in Mexico in Aug. of 2023 after a year of being listed as a fugitive on narcotics trafficking charges from North Dakota. An indictment alleges that Gerads and 11 co-defendants ran a drug operation starting in 2019 that imported methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl to Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Wisconsin.
Prosecutors stated at the time of her arrest that Gerads and other defendants were receiving controlled substances directly from the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico and importing them to the Midwest for distribution. The indictment says those behind the operation used violence or the threat of violence to ensure payment for the drugs and to conceal their illegal activities.
The case is part of “Operation Unfinished Business II,” an Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation into the international trafficking of methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl.
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