Major Brainerd Area Drug Bust

A major drug bust is sending seven people in the Brainerd Lakes Area to prison following a large scale federal drug investigation. 

A Centerville man at the center of a methamaphemine distribution ring has been sentenced to 23 years in prison.  Sheriff Todd Dahl says Craig Thompson and several others were a significant sources of meth in the Brainerd area.  He says getting them off the streets goes a long way toward making this a safer community.

Four from Pillager have been sentenced from two to 27 years.  They are Mark Alan Farber, Rick Thomas Mertens, Barry Jay Wilcox and William Charles Tessmer. 

Three have ties to Brainerd and will serve from six to eight years.  They are John Michael Wilcox, Terry Jason Desterhaupt and Charles Scott Amundson.

Two others will be sentenced later.

Sheriff Dahl says Thompson led an organization which funneled methamphetamine from the Twin Cities to the Brainerd Lakes Area and Fargo North Dakota.