A Minneapolis man was sentenced in a McLeod County courtroom Dec. 1 for a March 8 crime related to the transportation of 10 pounds of methamphetamine toward Hutchinson on State Highway 7.
According to court documents, Fernando Rangel, 42, agreed to meet with a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension special agent, who had posed as a buyer, in Hutchinson to deliver 12 pounds of methamphetamine for a price between $50,000 and $60,000.
The street value of 10 pounds of methamphetamine ranges from $259,000 to $363,000, according to crystalmethaddiction.org.
Another agent applied for a warrant and was given permission to monitor Rangel’s location via his cell phone, and monitor the phone numbers from which Rangel received and sent phone calls and text messages. It was noted Rangel traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; and Paducah, Kentucky.
The Minnesota State Patrol was notified when Rangel was on the way to Hutchinson and he was pulled over when officers clocked him driving 65 mph in a 60 mph zone. He was arrested for driving with a canceled license, and the vehicle was searched due to conflicting stories told by Rangel about his reason to visit Hutchinson.
Two hidings spots were found in speaker boxes with the help of a K-9. Ten pounds of methamphetamine was discovered.
After 286 days in jail, Rangel was found guilty of first-degree possession of a controlled substance. He was sentenced to 93 months in jail.
Rangel’s defense argued for leniency in sentencing, stating Rangel had tried in recent years to better himself, and had gone without a significant offense since the early 2000s.
“While the defendant was the one in possession of the controlled substance, and the contact person for the buy, he was still a mid-to-low-level party in a much larger operation,” the defense argued. “There is nothing in this case that identifies where the controlled substance was procured, or where, under other circumstances, it would have gone.”
