A St. Paul man who authorities say was the ringleader of a group that mailed a record amount of fentanyl pills from Arizona to the Twin Cities hidden in stuffed animals has been sentenced to more than 13 years in prison.

Cornell Montez Chandler Jr., 25, was given a 160-month term Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan in St. Paul after pleading guilty in June to conspiracy to distribute the drug between August 2022 and February 2023. Bryan also imposed five years of post-incarceration supervised release.

Cornell Montez Chandler Jr. (Courtesy of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office)

Chandler’s eight co-defendants, all from the Twin Cities, have pleaded not guilty to the same charge.

The charges followed the seizure of 280,000 fentanyl pills that were sent in six packages through the U.S. Postal Service from Phoenix to the Twin Cities metro area in January and February of last year. Authorities called the fentanyl seizure, which amounted to 66 pounds with an estimated value of over $2.2 million, the largest ever in Minnesota.

The investigation involved law enforcement from Washington, Dakota and Ramsey counties, along with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations.

“Those seizures saved lives. However, not every package was intercepted,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Campbell Warner wrote in a memo to the court last month. “Thousands of Chandler’s deadly pills still made it to their intended targets — the people of Minnesota. Mothers and sons. Fathers and daughters.”

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, just 2 milligrams of fentanyl can kill a person.

Chandler led the conspiracy that shipped tens of thousands of “poisonous, lethal pills” to Minnesota, endangering “hundreds of thousands of people,” Warner wrote. “That is fact, not hyperbole. And for that, Chandler deserves a severe punishment.”

Chandler’s sentence is below the 15½ year term sought by federal prosecutors.

Chandler’s attorney, Frederick Goetz, asked for a downward departure to 10 years, telling the judge ahead of sentencing that his client had an “extremely difficult childhood” and later turned to alcohol and drugs.

Chandler’s prior felony convictions were for aggravated robbery in 2017 in Ramsey County and fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in 2021 in Washington County.

Disguised as birthday presents

Authorities seized 280,000 fentanyl pills that were hidden in stuffed animals and mailed through the U.S. Postal Service from Phoenix to the Twin Cities metro area early last year. (Courtesy of U.S. District Court of Minnesota)

According to his plea agreement, Chandler admitted he flew to Phoenix to buy fentanyl from one or more suppliers and that he and others mailed packages through the U.S. Postal Service to the Twin Cities for distribution.

Chandler also admitted they had mailed other packages to the Twin Cities that were not seized and that the pills then were passed to others for further dealing.

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The drug ring disguised the stuffed animals as birthday presents and lined them with dog treats in an attempt to prevent drug-sniffing dogs from alerting them, the plea agreement says.

Chandler’s co-defendants are: Quijuan Hosea Bankhead, 31; Amaya Tiffany-Nicole Mims, 24; Fo’Tre Devine White, 31; Robiel Lee Williams, 24; all of St. Paul; and Shardai Rayshell Allen, 25; Stardasha Christina Davenport-Mounger, 25; Da’Shawn Natori Domena, 25; and Phyu Win Jame, 28, of Minneapolis.

Minnesota had 947 opioid-involved overdose deaths last year and about 70 percent involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl, according to preliminary data released last month by state health officials. That was 84 fewer deaths than in 2022; nonfatal overdoses involving opioids other than heroin increased last year by 11 percent, from 4,328 to 4,819.